Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the chamber’s No. 2 Republican and top deputy to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), came out in support of Trump in a statement to Fox News, “while a prominent Koch-backed group dropped its funding for Nikki Haley,” Just the News reported.

”The primary results in South Carolina make clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in this year’s pivotal presidential election,” Thune said. “The choice before the American people is crystal clear: It’s Donald Trump or Joe Biden.”

The former president also praised the fact that Charles and David Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity Action, a group that supports free markets, stopped funding Haley’s campaign.

He wrote on his Truth Social platform:

“AMERICAN’S FOR NO PROSPERITY JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTING NIKKI “BRAINDEAD” (BIRDBRAIN?) HALEY. CHARLES KOCH AND HIS GROUP GOT PLAYED FOR SUCKERS RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING!”

In an email that was first reported by Politico,  AFP Action’s Emily Seidel explained to the organization’s staff why it was ending financial support for former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, saying that the group didn’t believe that “any outside group can make a material difference to widen her path to victory.”

But despite the trouncing — Trump beat her with roughly 60 percent of the vote to her 40 percent — Haley vowed Saturday evening that she would remain in the race nonetheless.