Nikki Haley is acting as a thorn in former President Donald Trump‘s side despite her losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, but her persistence could cause problems for him even if she suspends her campaign.
Trump appears to be the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party in the 2024 elections. The former South Carolina governor has a chance to turn things around in her home state next month, but it remains unclear if Trump’s control of the party is still too much for her to overcome. But that hasn’t stopped her from being at the front of Trump’s mind.
“Underestimate me, that’s always fun,” Haley tweeted on Thursday.
Haley has grown more aggressive in her attacks on Trump as the campaign wears on, denouncing him at every opportunity she can. She launched a $4 million advertising campaign in South Carolina, describing a Biden versus Trump election as a “rematch no one wants.”
“Donald Trump wants to be the presumptive Republican nominee, and we’re talking about $83 million in damages,” Haley said on Friday after a Manhattan jury ruled that Trump had to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for defaming her. “We’re not talking about fixing the border. We’re not talking about tackling inflation. America can do better than Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”
Some Republican experts have advocated for Trump simply ignoring Haley because she isn’t likely to affect his significant lead among Republican voters.
“Trump’s best strategy is to assume he is the nominee and go straight at Biden and ignore Haley, let her flounder around until she either runs out of money or realizes that there is no future,” Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House and ex-presidential candidate told the Guardian. “She’ll presently disappear.”
Trump hasn’t taken that advice. He is launching flurries of attacks on Truth Social, deriding Haley as “birdbrain” and has threatened to blacklist anyone who donated to her campaign. He regularly insults Haley on social media and spent much of his victory speech in New Hampshire tearing into his opponent he beat by double digits.
“Donald Trump wants the race to be over, and we see evidence of why that’s important for the Trump campaign from his speech, which was essentially a train wreck and exhibited all the worst tendencies of Donald Trump,” Wendy Schiller, a political scientist at Brown University, said. “It was an undisciplined Trump, and this is what turns off independent voters.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump’s incessant focus on Haley could hamstring his campaign as he spends energy looking back at an opponent who won’t drop out rather than ahead at the incumbent he is trying to beat. As long as Trump is distracted by Haley, Schiller said, the more difficult it is going to be for him to win over the voters who are still undecided about who they are going to support in November.
“This is the Achilles heel for the Trump campaign, and they know it,” Schiller said. “The sooner this gets wrapped up, then he doesn’t have any more of those impromptu late-night speeches. Their worry is not that they’re not going to win the nomination; their worry is the damage that Trump having to respond to Haley will do in the general election with independent voters.”