It's a well-used page in former President Donald Trump's playbook for attacking his political rivals with insults, conspiracy theories and nicknames to make them seem different from the white voters who primarily make up the Republican Party's base.
He repeated over the years the same lies about former President Barack Obama's nationality and said that Obama's middle name would be Hussein. Trump also questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris, whose parents are immigrants, was eligible.
He did this to Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who was his biggest opponent in the 2016 Republican primaries, when Trump released a false National Enquirer report that sought to link Cruz's Cuban-born father to John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Cruz, by the way, endorsed Trump's re-election bid following the former president's victory in the Iowa caucuses.
Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who Trump also bested in the 2016 primaries with “Little Marco” taunts, also endorsed Trump this week.
And so it's no surprise that as the GOP primary campaign focuses on New Hampshire ahead of the Jan. 23 primary, Trump has turned hard against Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who has already served as her government's ambassador to the United Nations.
While Haley has always used her middle name, Nikki, Trump has used her first name, Nimarata, misspelling it in social media posts and placing it in quotation marks as “Nimrada.” Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Again with the 14th Amendment
Trump also pushed a ridiculous theory on his social media platform that Haley should be disqualified from running, even though she was born in the US and therefore definitely a natural-born citizen qualified for office under the 14th Amendment.
In fact, it is Trump who faces more legitimate questions about his eligibility under the 14th Amendment.
In Maine, a judge delayed his decision on whether Trump can appear on that state's 2024 presidential ballot until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling on a case in Colorado in which Trump was declared ineligible for office under the insurrectionist clause of the 14th Amendment. Oral arguments are scheduled for February 8 at the Supreme Court.
Trump opposition
Haley has been extremely careful to make her own argument that Republicans must move beyond Trump, trying not to alienate her supporters and wrapping her criticism of Trump in a generational message that also strikes a chord with President Joe Biden, the other senior in the race.
Haley represents a change
Trump even recently focused his insults on Florida Governor Ron Desantis, who Trump likes to call “DeSancimonious.” With Desantis finishing a distant second in the Iowa caucuses, he sees the time to focus on Haley, who polls suggest is a threat to Trump's dominance in New Hampshire.
“It's clear that Nikki Haley is completely on his mind because Trump believes her rival is close to the Republican nomination,” said CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
“He’s trying to replace Nikki Haley,” said CNN political analyst and Bloomberg columnist Nia-Malika Henderson.
“One of the things that this ends up doing, in the context of white identity politics, is reminding voters that they are white… and that kind of activates their politics, which moves them to get off the couch and into the voting booth,” Henderson said.
Appeals to independent voters
In remarks in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Trump criticized Haley's record with his office and the United Nations and complained that she is trying to encourage independents to participate in the process and support her in next week's Republican primary.
“If you want a candidate who has been endorsed by every rhino, globalist, and deranged never-Trumper, pick Haley,” Trump says. “RINO” is short for Republican and has essentially become shorthand, in Trump parlance, for any Republican who questions him.
The New Hampshire primary allows independent voters to register with any party on primary day, which Trump says is tantamount to infiltration of the Republican Party primary. It is not true, as he claims, that Democrats can participate in the Republican Party primaries.
“You have a group of people who are not Republicans and you are artificially inflating their numbers here,” Trump said.
If Haley pulls off a surprise victory in New Hampshire, it will be with the help of these undeclared voters. His support was behind Haley's rise in a CNN New Hampshire poll released last week.
From campaign to court
By Wednesday, Trump was off the campaign trail and back in court, where he was responding to a defamation lawsuit with former columnist E. Jean Carroll. Last year, a jury in a separate trial found him responsible for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996.
One Republican who has not wavered in his opposition to Trump since January 6, 2021 is Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, four years before Trump.
Romney was asked by CNN's Manu Raju about polls showing that a majority of Iowa voters did not believe Biden was legitimately elected.
“I think a lot of people in this country are out of touch with reality and will accept anything Donald Trump tells them,” Romney told Raju. “You had a jury that said Donald Trump raped a woman. And that doesn't seem to be moving a needle. There are many things about today’s electorate that I have difficulty understanding.”
Note: Romney exaggerated the facts. The jury found Trump responsible for sexual abuse, not rape.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
