After securing a decisive victory in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Donald Trump has shifted his attention to Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor. Despite finishing third in Iowa and trailing Trump by less than 14 points in New Hampshire, where the second Republican nominating process is scheduled for January 23, Haley remains a target for Trump’s criticisms.
Trump has accused her of contemplating cuts to Social Security benefits, alleged her support for tax increases, and attempted to use her first name against her. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump misspelled Haley’s given name, Nimarata, saying, “Anyone listening to Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley’s whacked out speech last night would think that she won the Iowa Primary.”
Trump’s tactic of emphasizing and mispronouncing names to portray them as unfamiliar or foreign is not new and has been previously employed against figures such as Barack Obama and Kamala Harris. He has also used pronunciation to attack Pete Buttigieg, pronouncing his surname as “Boot-edge-edge.”
Donald Trump (Credits: Vanity Fair)
The issue of Haley’s first name was previously raised by Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican candidate who ended his campaign and endorsed Trump. In response, Haley clarified in August on Fox News, “I was born with Nikki on my birth certificate, I was raised as Nikki. I married a Haley, and so that is what my name is, so he can say or misspell or do whatever he wants.”
In another attempt to cast an opponent as un-American, Trump circulated a Gateway Pundit post suggesting that Haley should be barred from running for president due to her parents not being U.S. citizens when she was born. However, this claim is false, as Haley was born in South Carolina in 1972, qualifying her as a natural-born citizen under the 14th Amendment, regardless of her parents’ citizenship status.
Despite trailing Trump in New Hampshire polls by double digits, Haley’s support in the state is stronger than in any other. The New Hampshire primary could be the last opportunity for anti-Trump Republicans, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who narrowly beat Haley for second place in Iowa, is polling in the mid-single digits in New Hampshire. This likely explains Haley’s decision to withdraw from a scheduled one-on-one debate with DeSantis, choosing to participate only in debates that include Trump or Joe Biden.
While a potential Trump loss in New Hampshire might not make the primary competitive, in South Carolina, the next state on the GOP primary calendar and Haley’s home state, Trump holds a significant lead of almost 30 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s composite polling average.
