As New Hampshire Primary Looms, Trump Takes Aim At Nikki Haley

Now that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the race, Donald Trump has only one opponent left to zero in on: Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. He’s already started with his dumb racist comments about her full name — Nimarata Nikki Haley (née Randhawa) because yes, her parents are immigrants from India and therefore Trump thinks she’s fair game. He insulted her with the name “Nimbra” three times in a post on Truth Social over the weekend, and now, on the eve of the New Hampshire Primary, according to The Hill, he’s back at it again. This time, however, he’s attacking Haley as a way to smear Democrats. Which he did Monday night at a rally in Laconia, New Hampshire.

“here in new hampshire nikki haley has made an unholy alliance with rinos, never trumpers, americans for no prosperity,” Trump told his audience, referring to the support she receives from the koch-backed americans for prosperity. “globalists and radical left communists to get liberals and biden supporters to vote for her in the Republican primary.”

“the radical left democrats are supporting nikki for one simple reason because they know that she’s very easy to beat,” he added.

And of course, since Trump wants everyone to be loyal to him at all costs, he also had sharp criticism for New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu after he endorsed Haley.

“you do have to do one thing, you have to get the democrats to stop voting in a republican primary,” the former president said. “what’s that all about? that’s a weak governor that would allow that.”

Now here, I don’t know if Trump is getting confused by the facts, but New Hampshire is an open primary state. Independents can vote in Democratic or Republican primaries. Registered Democrats, however, are only allowed to vote in Democratic primaries and were given a deadline of last October to change their party affiliation.

The Trump/Haley throwdown begins on Tuesday in New Hampshire as Haley seeks to scuttle Trump’s momentum in the lead-up to the presidential primary. She has been honing in on him in the final stretch before New Hampshire. Especially after he boneheadedly mixed up Haley with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She can’t help but zero in on his cognition or lack thereof.

“don’t be surprised if you [have] someone that’s 80 in office, their mental stability is going to continue to decline, that’s just human nature. we know that,” she said.

Of course that could also be taken as a slap at President Joe Biden, who is 81. Although most days he seems far sharper than Trump, who’s 77.

So it will be interesting to see what transpires in New Hampshire. According to The Hill’s Decision Desk HQ average, Haley is trailing Trump 47.6 percent to 35.9 percent in New Hampshire. In her home state of South Carolina, she’s behind 61 percent to 27.3 percent.

Her campaign, however, says it has picked up momentum in the aftermath of DeSantis’s dropping out on Sunday. The campaign reported on Monday that it had raised $500,000 in 24 hours since he dropped out. And the campaign also said plans are in the works to launch a $4 million ad purchase in South Carolina on Wednesday, the day after the New Hampshire primary.

Sure, Haley’s campaign says that now, but it may sing a very different song when the primary concludes. Whichever candidate comes out on top (and it will almost certainly be Trump), I hope they lose in November.

Haley may seem better than Trump but she’s not. By any means. She’s already saying she’d sign a nationwide abortion ban and it looks like she may be deeply homophobic. Last February she said DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” law didn’t go far enough.

Biden is sharper than either of these two, so hopefully he’ll prevail. Hopefully.