ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is out of the running for the White House, meaning the race is now a two-person one between President Donald Trump and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.
Yesterday, in a four-and-a-half-minute video posted on X, the Florida governor announced he was ending his bid for the presidency. The announcement came two days ahead of the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to his supporters after finding out the 2024 Iowa caucuses results at the Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 15, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
“Following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on the way forward. If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome … I would do it,” DeSantis said. “But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory,” DeSantis said in his video message.
“Accordingly, I am now, today, suspending my campaign.”
After he dropped out, DeSantis immediately endorsed Trump—an endorsement that Trump gratefully accepted. In a show of goodwill, Trump announced that he was “retiring” his former nickname for the Florida governor, “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
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Speaking to supporters in Rochester, New Hampshire yesterday, Trump congratulated DeSantis, saying he “ran a really great campaign.”
“As you know, he left the campaign trail today … And in so doing he was very gracious and endorsed me, so I appreciate that,” Trump added. “I look forward to working with Ron … to defeat crooked Joe Biden.”
With DeSantis out, the race is now a one-on-one matchup between Trump and Haley.
The Jan. 23 contest will be a critical test of Ms. Haley’s viability to challenge Trump’s dominance in the battle for the presidential nomination.
“It’s now one fella and one lady left,” Haley told supporters yesterday.
“There were 14 people in this race,” she continued. “All the fellas are out except for this one. And this comes down to what do you want? Do you want more of the same or do you want something new?”
Haley enjoyed a surge in New Hampshire polls beginning in late December, though that seems to have softened recently.
Some polls have shown Trump and Haley neck and neck in the Granite State, while others have shown Trump leading by a double-digit margin.
The most recent polling, released Jan. 21 by CNN and the University of New Hampshire, showed Trump leading Haley by 11 percentage points.
That’s bad news for Haley, whose path to the White House now relies on a respectable showing in New Hampshire.
Future contests, including the upcoming contest in South Carolina, show a substantially more solid lead for Trump—meaning that New Hampshire is Haley’s best chance to show that she’s a viable alternative to Trump early on.
—Joseph Lord, Lawrence Wilson, and Austin Alonzo
CHINESE PURCHASES OF US FARMLAND
A new government review requested by 130 Republican lawmakers found that the United States is in the dark about China’s purchase of U.S. farmland, an issue of increasing concern on the Hill and among the American public.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture needs to move away from its manual, paper-form-based data collection process and share the information with other agencies more timely than once a year, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Jan. 18.
In addition, USDA is required by law to create an online filing process and a database of foreign agricultural land ownership by the end of 2025. However, it has yet to make plans and timelines to do so, according to GAO.
Meanwhile, the collection of foreign farmland purchase data relies on self-reporting by investors, and USDA rarely assesses penalties.
According to GAO findings, USDA’s information on foreign farmland ownership is not regularly shared with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency panel coordinating national security reviews of foreign investments. USDA data is also not regularly included in CFIUS reviews.
Recent high-profile cases, including a Chinese wind farm in Texas and a Chinese corn mill in North Dakota, both near sensitive Air Force bases, have shed light on the CFIUS’s limited jurisdiction. In both cases, the Chinese entities voluntarily filed with CFIUS after being reported by the media, and CFIUS cleared their transactions. Eventually, a new Texas state law and an opinion from the U.S. Air Force halted the projects, respectively.
A House Agriculture Committee aide told The Epoch Times, “The Committee will evaluate potential legislative vehicles, including the Farm Bill, to address the dangers of rising foreign ownership of American farmland.”
—Terri Wu
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- President Joe Biden meets with his Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access to mark the 51st anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v Wade decision.
- Vice President Kamala Harris visits Waukesha, Wisconsin, to mark the Supreme Court decision on abortion and kick off her nationwide “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour.
- Trump attends the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial in New York City before heading to a campaign rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, to speak at 7 p.m. ET.
Biden will deploy Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to make the case to middle America that Biden is the better steward of the economy, Axios reports. With many Americans fostering fond memories of Trump’s economy, team Biden is hoping to go on the offense and make the case that Biden’s economy is strong.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) demanded that the Treasury Department reveal who authorized a search into financial transactions related to “religious texts” in the aftermath of Jan. 6, The Epoch Times’ Mark Tapscott reports.
A Maine man is looking for answers after the discovery of an illegal marijuana farm in a warehouse allegedly linked to Chinese foreign nationals, The Epoch Times’ Allen Stein reports.
Trump teased information about his running mate that he says he “may or may not” release in the coming months, Axios reports. Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) are seen as possible contenders for the job.
The Department of Homeland Security raided the U.S. headquarters of a Chinese car part manufacturer, Axios reports. The raid comes amid growing fears of trade fraud and tariff evasion by the Chinese.
Former Los Angeles Dodgers star Steve Garvey is seeking to break through Democrats’ stronghold in California and flip the late Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) seat. An article by Politico tracks the baseball star’s longshot bid to be California’s next senator.
Some New Hampshire Democrats are preparing to write in Biden amid a squabble between the Democratic National Committee and the Granite State. But, The Epoch Times’ Nathan Worcester reports, the situation has eerie parallels to 1968, when a similar decision by President Lyndon B. Johnson ended in his decision not to seek reelection and a chaotic Democratic convention.
