It’s the same strategy she used in her home state in 2010 — when she seized on allegations of affairs and racist attacks to fend off three Republican primary rivals in the governor’s race.
“Those attacks were one part of why she won,” the campaign official said. “South Carolinians didn’t like it then and they won’t like nasty attacks now.”
‘Now she is an enemy’
With Haley refusing to drop out of the race, Trump has shifted from viewing her as a primary rival to a full-blown enemy, and has grown increasingly angry with her, sources close to the former president said.
“Before she was a gnat. Now she is an enemy, and Trump plans to bludgeon her in the lead-up to South Carolina,” a person who spoke with Trump following his victory in New Hampshire told CNN.
The Haley camp is planning on that!
He is also targeting Haley’s donors, warning that they’ll be “permanently barred” from his orbit if they continue to contribute her campaign.
“Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country. Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday night.
"Derogatory Comments": "Birdbrain" Haley makes "Derogatory Comments" about me! Wah-wah. :); "bludgeon", "enemy"--By God, she is getting to him.
Haley’s campaign leaned into those attacks Thursday, releasing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Barred. Permanently.”
YES! 👏
Trump and his campaign had hopes that a win in New Hampshire would effectively end the GOP presidential primary, his advisers said. ...
...Trump personally believes the party has fallen in line and wants to move forward...But from Trump’s point of view, Haley is getting in the way.
Haley’s decision to stick it out for now has infuriated the former president... and he is now determined to hurt her as much as possible...
Wow, "HURT"
How donors are reacting
Art Pope, a North Carolina retail magnate who is supporting Haley, sharply criticized Trump’s threat to blacklist the former governor’s donors, saying it “emboldens me” and only increases his commitment to her candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.
“I and most Americans do not respond well to a bully,” Pope, an influential player in North Carolina Republican politics “President Trump wants to be the leader of the country … noting that he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. "but rather than unifying, reaching out and building support, he’s basically telling us to go away and take a hike and threatening us. I decline to be threatened. I’m not going to be intimidated.”
He said Haley clearly is “getting under the skin” of someone “who wants an anointment...
However, other donors...said they will no longer back Haley’s efforts financially...
Biden’s campaign happy to see GOP race continue
Perhaps I should reconsider my position.
Biden campaign officials have been privately cheering on Haley’s decision to stay in the presidential race, sources say, as they monitor Trump lashing out at her.
The Biden campaign made clear after the New Hampshire primary that it fully believes Trump will be the president’s GOP opponent. Still, Biden’s reelection team has welcomed seeing Haley prolong the Republican contest and force the Trump campaign to use its resources and time to attack her.
“Go forth and prosper,” one Biden campaign official said in describing the team’s delight to see the Trump-Haley battle continue.
‘Part of her strategy is to make him mad’
I'll be damned.
[Pressure to get out] hasn’t stopped Haley from attempting to get under his skin.
“I think part of her strategy is to make him mad, which seems to be very effective,” said Chip Felkel, a South Carolina GOP strategist not working for any campaign. “He gets off script, he says stupid stuff, he tweets stupid things, and it’s been indicative that he’s not controlled.”
Felkel, who described Haley’s approach as “guerrilla warfare,”...
Like the Confederate slaver Nathan Bedford Forrest. Guerrillas can do a LOT of damage.
...said he doesn’t think she can win South Carolina but speculated that she may try to stay in until the convention.
“She got a lot of fight in her, but at some point conventional wisdom says you’ve got to get a W...
I agree with that. Unless...a Black Swan is born!
“And maybe she’s banked enough, going to be judicious enough with it, that she thinks she can be in for the long haul.”
Nikkle and Dime! I bet she has. This is like Mo Udall in 1976.
Underdogs are compelling to just about everybody. Hard not to root for her.
I rag on CNN continuously but man, that was a great article.