Image source, Getty Images

So there we have it - another Republican primary done and dusted, and another victory for the clear front-runner Donald Trump.

Trump's victory in Nikki Haley's home state of South Carolina was so assured that he was declared the winner almost immediately after polls closed - and appeared on stage to speak just minutes later

He didn't mention Haley at all, but instead looked ahead to the election on 5 November, which is now more likely than ever to be a Trump-Biden rematch.

"We're going to look Joe Biden right in the eye - he's destroying our country - and we're going to say 'get out Joe, you're fired,'" he told his supporters.

As for Haley, she said she's sticking to her promise to stay in the race. She received about 40% of the vote, which she said "is not some tiny group".

We're closing up our live coverage now. Read the latest from one of our reporters in South Carolina.

Let's check in on the results, with some figures from the BBC's US partner CBS News.

CBS says 63% of expected votes have now been counted, and Trump is leading Haley by a 22-point margin.

He's got 60% of the vote and Haley has 38%.

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Charleston

Image source, Getty Images

Nikki Haley has done it again: she's lost, badly, to Donald Trump, and then followed up with remarks that sound a lot like a victory speech.

This time around, she leaned even harder into her new strategy: making a pitch for the general election.

It's been a common refrain among her and her team this week - that beating Joe Biden in November is the ultimate goal, and she thinks Trump isn't up to it.

"I don’t believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden," she said this evening.

The problem for Haley is that unless she can somehow defeat Trump - a long-shot goal that moved even further away from her tonight - that pitch remains completely irrelevant.

Earlier this week, Nikki Haley said that no matter what happened in South Carolina she would continue to run for president.

"I'm a woman of my word," she said tonight, to loud cheering. Watch the moment below:

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Image source, EPA

It was a defeat that had been telegraphed by polls for weeks, but for Nikki Haley it still has to sting.

When she announced her presidential bid in Charleston a year ago, one of her touted strengths was that she had never lost an election in South Carolina - even when she faced the longest of odds.

The odds were definitely against her in the South Carolina primary, but in this case there would be no surprise victory. There wasn’t even a narrow defeat.

South Carolina is now Trump country - like every state so far and, in all likelihood, every to come.

The former governor has promised to soldier on. If she keeps getting 40% of the vote, she will pick up more delegates in the slate of Super Tuesday states that vote in early March.

But the returns from her campaign are diminishing toward zero. By mid-March, Trump may have enough delegates to guarantee he wins the nomination

Then the question becomes what she does next.

Does she endorse the man she described over the last few weeks as reckless and unhinged? She wouldn’t be the first Trump critic to execute such a heel-turn. But she may be betting that in November Trump will falter - and she will be positioned to forge a new path for the party.

No Republican has managed to do so yet. But, for better or worse, Haley doesn’t seem to shy away from a long-shot.

The race may have already been called but votes are still being counted across South Carolina.

With half of all votes now counted, Donald Trump leads Nikki Haley by a 20-point margin, our partners at CBS News report.

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Charleston

There was a brief moment during Nikki Haley's speech where it sounded like she might be dropping out.

"I’ve always seen our state as a family. Families are honest with each others," she says slowly. "They say the hard truths."

But the hard truth this evening, it turned out, was not that she suffered yet another bruising loss, or that her path to nomination is reaching mathematic impossibility.

Instead, Haley doubled down on her vow to keep going with the race, a promise that's become common in her campaign.

Her supporters here appreciate it, interrupting her speech repeatedly to cheer and shout "we love you".

Unfortunately for Haley, that appreciation is not felt widely enough in her own party.

"I'm grateful that today is not the end of our story," says Haley. "We're headed to Michigan tomorrow, and we're headed to the Super Tuesday states throughout all of next week.

"We'll keep fighting for America and we won't rest until America wins."

So there we go - just like she said she would, she's carrying on until Super Tuesday on 5 March.

Image source, Reuters

Haley congratulates Donald Trump on his victory - which gets some boos - and she praises South Carolina and the people in it, saying: "No matter the results, I love the people of our state."

"We need to beat Joe Biden in November," she says. "I don't believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden. Nearly every day, Trump drives people away".

Following early projections suggesting she's got about 40% of the vote, Haley says: "I know 40% is not some tiny group."

As she addresses whether she will continue to run, she says: "I'm a woman of my word".

"I’m not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden," she adds.

Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, is now addressing her supporters in her home state after losing the primary.

She takes the stage to chants of "Nikki!".

"Y'all are a rowdy bunch," she says, before thanking her family - including her husband Michael and her two children.

She also gives a shout-out to her mother, who was a lawyer in India, and who she took to the polling station earlier to cast her vote.

"I feel blessed tonight," she says. "I've felt blessed throughout this entire journey, even when it's been tough."

Speaking at his victory rally earlier, Trump said he'd never seen a "spirit" like this - and that he'd also never seen the Republican Party so "unified".

Watch some of his speech below:

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Charleston

Image source, Getty Images

There's been a telling change in the TV channel at Nikki Haley's election night party - the right-wing Fox News has been turned off, and CNN has been turned on.

Her supporters are closely tuned in, cheering every time a commentator says anything positive about their candidate.

At one point, an anchor says Haley should continue on "as long as she has the money".

The crowd here responds loudly, shouting "she does!" and the room erupts in applause. We're still waiting to hear from Haley.

Will Vernon
Reporting from Columbia

We’re outside the Trump victory rally in Columbia which has just ended.

Karen came here all the way from Florida to see Donald Trump. She's also done some telephone canvassing for him.

She says she’s not concerned about the former president’s legal troubles: "He could run the government under house arrest from the White House and we wouldn’t care. We love him."

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Charleston

Trump has been projected the winner tonight, but we - and Haley's campaign - always expected that.

But we’re still waiting for the full results, and it's possible Haley could find small comfort once we get further voter tallies.

If she can narrow the gap with Trump from previous races, she can argue she has momentum on her side. She lost to Trump in New Hampshire by just over 11 points.

But if she is unable to further close the margin in her home state, the dim path to a nomination will look even dimmer.

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Charleston

I'm at the Nikki Haley watch party at The Charleston Place, one of the fanciest hotels in the city.

The mood here has been fairly calm, with supporters milling around, eating buffet food and sipping wine to the tune of Fox News streaming on a large screen.

But once Trump's projected win was announced, that vibe shifted, noticeably. Campaign staffers and some of her more enthusiastic voters tried to push more people into the ballroom, asking them to bring signs and their energy. One man led a boisterous call-and-response cheer.

The enthusiasm seems genuine but that doesn't change the results - Haley looks likely to lose her fourth contest in a row to Trump.

More now from the exit polls collected by the BBC's US partner CBS News, as Trump's victory speech wraps up.

The polls say Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary by beating Haley among most key demographic groups.

He won majorities of both men and women, and he led among all age groups, CBS says.

It adds that Trump ran especially well with the parts of the Republican base that were predominant in this state's electorate, including conservatives and white evangelicals.

Trump is now inviting some of his most essential backers to speak on stage with him - including Tim Scott, a rumoured running mate.

Scott asks the audience: "Is South Carolina Trump country?" - and is met with loud cheers.

Next up is Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina senator who is being met by boos. Some in the maga movement do not think he has been dedicated to the president enough.

Graham ignored the off-putting greeting, saying: "America, the nightmare you're facing is just about over. This is the most qualified man to be president of the United States".

Image source, Reuters

"It's an early evening and a fantastic evening," Trump tells his supporters, with a number of South Carolina surrogates lined up behind him.

"We can celebrate for about 15 minutes and then we have to get back to work," he adds, with a clear nod to the next primaries and Super Tuesday - when 16 states vote on one day.

He goes on to say he will be ready on 5 November to "look Joe Biden right in the eye and say, 'Joe you're fired, get out Joe, you're fired'."

Image source, Reuters

Trump is now speaking at his victory party, where he begins by saying "this is a little sooner than anticipated".

CBS, BBC's US partner, and other American media outlets projected Trump as the winner within minutes of polls closing in South Carolina.