You have to hand it to Nikki Haley, she is tenacious. After her fourth straight loss to Donald Trump, this time in her home state of South Carolina, Haley is still not quitting the Republican race. This ensures that for at least the next 10 days until Super Tuesday, when the most states vote, she will continue to snap at Trump’s heels. With each act of defiance against Trump and her inevitable defeat, Haley shames Trump’s former critics-turned-courtiers.

“I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now,” said Trump in his Saturday night victory speech. Trump’s verdict is irrefutable in terms of his delegate lead, especially because of winner-takes-all states. He will be the Republican nominee. But the dogged “Never Trump” spirit of roughly a quarter of Republican voters — including the 40 per cent or so who voted for Haley in South Carolina — shows a Republican party that is far from unified.

This is no ordinary party split. The cognitive gap between those who believe the 2020 election was stolen and the minority of Republicans who acknowledge that is a myth is extremely hard to reconcile. It is one thing to say your rival believes in voodoo economics, as George HW Bush did of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Reagan selected Bush as his running mate. It is quite another to say “there is no way America is going to vote for a convicted criminal,” as Haley believes will be the case for Trump by November.