She said Trump “pitched a fit,” called him “insecure” and declared he “should feel threatened, without a doubt.” She cast doubt on his mental competency — the same line of attack Trump and his allies have long leveled at President Joe Biden — and dared Trump to debate her one-on-one.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is growing more defiant in the face of Donald Trump’s efforts to push her out of the 2024 Republican primary race, poking and prodding at the former president and encouraging supporters to wear Trump’s attacks as a badge of honor.
Returning to her home state Wednesday, Haley mocked Trump’s victory speech in New Hampshire the night earlier — one in which the former president raged about the concession speech Haley had just delivered.
She said Trump “pitched a fit,” called him “insecure” and declared he “should feel threatened, without a doubt.” She cast doubt on his mental competency — the same line of attack Trump and his allies have long leveled at President Joe Biden — and dared Trump to debate her one-on-one.
“Bring it, Donald,” she said in North Charleston. “Show me what you got.”
Haley’s increasingly pointed attacks on Trump come amid pressure from many Republicans for her to drop out of the 2024 primary race so that the party can coalesce around the former president — who is seeking a third consecutive nomination.
Polls show Haley is far behind Trump in South Carolina, where many of her former allies have turned on her and the Republican primary electorate is much more conservative than that of New Hampshire — where she lost to Trump by 11 points.
Still, she remains a thorn in the former president’s side, provoking his ire in ways the 2024 Republican presidential contenders he’s already dispatched never did.
And Haley’s aides say that’s intentional.
Her campaign is bracing for Trump to go too far in attacking Haley and believes those attacks are likely to boost her support in South Carolina. One campaign official said Trump’s attacks would be a “key piece” of Haley’s pathway to winning over Palmetto State voters ahead of the February 24 primary.
It’s the same strategy she used in her home state in 2010 — when she seized on allegations of affairs and racist attacks to fend off three Republican primary rivals in the governor’s race.
“Those attacks were one part of why she won,” the campaign official said. “South Carolinians didn’t like it then and they won’t like nasty attacks now.”
With Haley refusing to drop out of the race, Trump has shifted from viewing her as a primary rival to a full-blown enemy, and has grown increasingly angry with her, sources close to the former president said.
“Before she was a gnat. Now she is an enemy, and Trump plans to bludgeon her in the lead-up to South Carolina,” a person who spoke with Trump following his victory in New Hampshire told CNN.
He is also targeting Haley’s donors, warning that they’ll be “permanently barred” from his orbit if they continue to contribute her campaign.
“Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country. Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday night.
“Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!” he said.
Haley’s campaign leaned into those attacks Thursday, releasing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Barred. Permanently.” Haley posted a photo of the new T-shirts on social media, saying, “Enough said … Grab your shirt here.”
Haley also told supporters in North Charleston that her campaign had already raised $1 million after her concession speech and Trump’s election night address in New Hampshire.
Trump’s latest attacks are an escalation of weeks of digs at Haley, who served as his US ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump has already attacked Haley with a racist dog whistle, referring to her on Truth Social by her first name Nimarata, which he misspelled “Nimrada” and later “Nimbra.
