Donald Trump has made a remarkable comeback in becoming the clear frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination, his former chief of staff has said.

“If you asked me a year ago, I thought there was no chance he could win,” Mick Mulvaney told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.

“January 6 was looming very large at the time. I thought his ceiling in the Republican party was 35 per cent and clearly its closer to something between 50 and 60.”

Mr Trump has a clear lead in the national polls and won more than 50 per cent of the vote in New Hampshire, where Nikki Haley needed to win to have a realistic chance of beating him to the nomination.

The former president has also seen off Ron DeSantis, who in January last year was polling less than 10 points behind him but pulled out of the race on Sunday after his campaign flatlined.

Mr Mulvaney added: “He managed to take this barrage of criminal investigations and turn them masterfully to his advantage, to make it look like the Biden administration was out to get their political opponents, and he has had a message which is very compelling.”

Every Republican in history who has won both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary has gone on to be the party’s presidential candidate.

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