Trump shifts to attacking Nikki Haley after debates: ‘Birdbrain’

Former President Donald Trump shifted his line of attack to focus on former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, one of his Republican primary opponents in 2024, in a number of posts to Truth Social as she rises in the polls.

Trump, who leads his opponents by double digits and boasts the support of more than half of likely Republican primary voters, has mostly limited his criticisms to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who initially showed donors the most promise in challenging him for the nomination. But now, as DeSantis struggles to recoup support in the polls and Haley is on the upswing following powerful debate performances, the former president appears to be switching targets.

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“MAGA, or I, will never go for Birdbrain Nikki Haley. No loyalty, plenty of lies!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. “‘I will never run against our great President,’ she said, ‘he has done an outstanding job.’ To which I responded,’How nice of you to say, Nikki,’ knowing full well that her words mean nothing. She even came to Mar-a-Lago with her family, ‘bearing gifts.’ Anyway, Birdbrain doesn’t have the TALENT or TEMPERAMENT to do the job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

He further shared a video of Haley from 2021, prior to her entrance to the race, when she told reporters that she wouldn’t run for president if Trump did.

During the second Republican debate Wednesday, Trump and his campaign were notably silent on the performance of the other candidates. However, the campaign sent one email toward the end of the debate, titled, “The Real Nikki Haley.” The email featured several articles linking her to Hillary Clinton and recalling controversial previous stances and praise for Trump.

While Trump and his associated super PAC have reined in some of their DeSantis attacks, his campaign continues to send daily emails chronicling what it calls a “kiss of death countdown.” The countdown references a reported 60-day timeline laid out by DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down’s chief strategist Jeff Roe for him to turn his campaign around and beat Trump. In the latest countdown email, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung referred to the Florida governor as “a disloyal dog.”

Haley welcomed Trump’s attention in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Love this. It means we are in 2nd and moving up fast. Bring it!” she wrote.

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Haley recently surpassed DeSantis in New Hampshire, in second place to Trump, who has 45% to Haley’s 15%. DeSantis boasted just 11%, beating former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie by one point.

Haley showed strong numbers in a recent CNN poll’s matchup between herself and President Joe Biden, beating him by more than any other Republican primary candidate. Her six percentage point lead over Biden in the survey was outside of the margin of error.