It was a moment when Donald Trump would have been kind, generous, perhaps even president. Instead, he attacked his opponent’s clothes. “When I watched her in the probably not-so-glamorous fancy dress, I thought, ‘What is she doing? We won,” he said of his New Hampshire opponent, Nikki Haley, on Tuesday night.
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Trump won the first primary election of 2024 and almost clinched the Republican candidacy for the US presidency. Party leaders and campaign surrogates are now eager to push Haley into irrelevance, leaving the primary and uniting against the Democrats. They want Trump to face an almost inevitable rematch with Democrat Joe Biden in November.
But the 77-year-old driver is still angry about Haley’s reluctance to quit the race. His temper is reminiscent of the erratic behavior that turned off independent voters in New Hampshire and could become a liability in a neck-and-neck race with Biden. This also belies an unusually professional and disciplined campaign operation.
“Donald Trump wants the race to be over, and we see evidence of why that matters to the Trump campaign in his speech, which was essentially a train wreck and showcased Donald Trump’s worst tendencies,” said Wendy Schiller, a political scientist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. “He was an undisciplined Trump, and that’s what upsets independent voters.”
He added: “This is the Achilles heel of the Trump campaign and they know it. The sooner this is over, the sooner he’ll give up his late-night impromptu speeches. Their concern is not that they won’t win the nomination; Their concern is the damage Trump having to respond to Haley will do to independent voters in the general election.”
The emotion and energy Trump expended attacking Haley is wildly disproportionate compared to the minimal threat she poses. He won the Iowa caucuses by a landslide — finishing third — and beat him by double digits in New Hampshire. No other Republican candidate in history who won the first two contests has managed to clinch their party’s nomination. His dominance looks set to render the next five months of primaries meaningless.
Former House speaker and former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said: “Trump’s best strategy is to assume he’s the nominee and go straight to Biden and ignore Haley, letting her hang around until she either runs out of money or realizes the situation.” is to give. That there is no future. “He will disappear soon.”
Republicans united around the former president and pressured Haley to step aside. He will not attend the caucuses in Nevada next month. Trump has received support from most of South Carolina’s leading Republicans, and polls show him leading by a wide margin in the state, which has a strong base of Christian evangelicals, ahead of the Feb. 24 primary.
But Haley, 52, a former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN, continues his military service. “Don’t underestimate me, it’s always fun,” he tweeted on Thursday. A fundraising tour is planned for next week, including stops in New York, Florida, California, Texas and South Carolina. He is expected to continue receiving donor support as Never Trumpers within the party make a final stand and hope he may be derailed by the 91 criminal charges against him.
“I know some of his donors, and my guess is that they want Trump to stay here to make things easier for him,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center on Politics. “They don’t say it on the record, but it’s something that happens to Trump, whether it’s health-wise or faith-wise, that makes him no longer eligible to run.” “They think the possibility is reasonable.”
Haley describes herself as “evil,” continues to hold rallies, and becomes more aggressive in her accusations of Trump. On Wednesday, he launched a $4 million ad campaign in South Carolina describing the prospect of a Biden-Trump election as “a rematch that no one wants.” The narrator says: “Biden – too old. Trump – so much chaos. “There is a better choice for a better America.”
How long can it last? Michael Steele, a Trump critic and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “My bet is two weeks. Do you really want to go into that race in your own state and lose by 30 or 40 points? Where is the political viability after that?” We’ve seen candidates lose their states and never hear from them again..”
Haley’s tenacity angered Trump. She branded him a “bird brain”. She threatened to blacklist anyone who donated to her campaign. He frequently rails against her on social media, writing: “Can someone please explain to Nikki that she lost – and lost badly? Also last week, Iowa lost the BIG. As some non-fake media are saying, these are ‘CRUSHING’ It was DEFEATS.”
The insults and outbursts are a reminder of why Trump has alienated moderate voters in the past. While his victory in New Hampshire was historic, it also exposed his general election weaknesses; He has shown to be quite popular among Republicans, but not so popular among independents, who are allowed to participate in Republican primaries under state rules.
There has never been such a wide gap between Republican votes and independent votes in the New Hampshire Republican primary. According to CNN’s exit polls, Trump won 74 percent to 25 percent of Republican voters, while Haley won the independent vote 58 percent to 39 percent.
42 percent of voters said they would not consider Trump fit to hold office if he was convicted of a crime. An analysis by Fox News found that 35 percent of voters in New Hampshire would be so dissatisfied with Trump’s candidacy that they would not vote for him in November.
More weakness than strength has emerged from the Republican party in the last few weeks
Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg
Steele, a host on the MSNBC cable news network, added: “There are 91 charges against this man. Of course he’s defenseless, but everyone wants to keep puffing him up like he’s a tiger or a lion. This is ridiculous.
“I wish people were honest about what’s in front of them. This man is extremely vulnerable. He is very weak. But in reality he is the man who drives people away in the TV world: rude, tough, determined. No, he’s a cranky little boy who gets cranky when challenged.”
Biden’s campaign is working on the assumption that Trump will be the nominee. He gave two major speeches about the threat Trump poses to democracy and the dangerous rise of white supremacy. This week, he held a joint event in Virginia with Vice President Kamala Harris to promote reproductive freedom and highlight Trump’s role in the high court’s decision overturning Dobbs’ constitutional right to an abortion.
Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg said: “The Dobbs decision has become a before-and-after moment in American politics where the sense that the Republican party has become so ugly, so extreme, so dangerous, and that it is struggling has been strong in election after election since the spring of 2022.” .”
He added: “Even our first time here, you’re starting to see in the last few weeks that the Republican party is showing more weakness than strength. Because Maga [Make America great again] It has lost its appeal even for Republican voters. Fear and opposition to Maga is the most powerful force in American politicsS. “This is why Republicans keep losing, and Republicans have chosen an ultra-Maga candidate as their nominee in 2024.”