Trump targets Nikki Haley with the sharpest attacks ever
Former President Donald J. Trump on Friday opened one of his most pointed lines of attack yet against Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who has emerged as one of his top competitors for the Republican nomination, accusing her of “in the to sit low’. ‘ from ‘establishment donors’.
At a campaign rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, Mr. Trump denounced Ms. Haley as the choice of corporate elites and the political establishment. Ms. Haley has received significant financial support from wealthy donors on Wall Street and in the tech world, including LinkedIn billionaire co-founder Reid Hoffman, who is a major Democratic donor.
“Nikki Haley’s campaign is funded by Biden donors,” Mr. Trump told hundreds of attendees at an event space about 20 miles from the South Dakota border, calling Ms. Haley a “globalist.”
“She loves the world. I love America first and foremost,” Trump said, adding that “the establishment losers and sellouts who are way behind us in the Republican primaries cannot be trusted on taxes, trade or anything else. They are globalists, and they always will be.”
Mr. Trump also cited Ms. Haley’s recent missteps on the campaign trail, particularly her response last week to a question in New Hampshire about the causes of the Civil War. Ms. Haley made no mention of slavery in her response.
“She doesn’t have what it takes,” Trump said.
A spokeswoman for the Haley campaign, Nachama Soloveichik, said: “If Trump is so strong about his false attacks, he should stop hiding and defend them on the debate stage in Des Moines.” She added that Mr. Trump “probably doesn’t remember that Nikki Haley passed one of the nation’s strictest anti-illegal immigration laws in 2011 because he was still a liberal from New York City.”
Mr. Trump’s increased scrutiny of Ms. Haley reflects her improved position in the race in recent months. For much of the past year, his fiercest criticism has been reserved for Mr. DeSantis, but Ms. Haley has been rising in the polls throughout the fall and winter. Mr. Trump continues to lead both candidates by wide margins in state and national polls.
Mr. Trump argued that his “Make America Great Again” movement had saved the Republican Party from an elite political class bent on regaining his influence by keeping him out of office.
“There’s no way we’re going to let them come back into power,” Trump said.