Tag: US presidential race

Donald Trump mocks Nikki Haley’s first name; refers to her by her first name

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump has lobbed racially charged attacks at his Indian-American Republican rival Nikki Haley by repeatedly referring to her as “Nimbra”, in an apparent intentional misspelling of her birth name.

Mr. Trump’s attack against Ms. Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants who served as his U.N. Ambassador, comes days before a hotly contested New Hampshire primary that could determine the trajectory of the party’s Presidential nomination contest.

Editorial | Early lead: On Donald Trump’s big win in Iowa caucuses

Ms. Haley, 52, whose parents moved to the United States in the 1960s, was born to Nimarata Nikki Randhawa.

The former South Carolina Governor has long used her middle name Nikki and adopted the surname Haley after her marriage in 1996.

But Mr. Trump, 77, repeatedly referred to Ms. Haley as “Nimbra” in a rant on his Truth Social account, adding her to the list of foes he has targeted with racist attacks.

He also insisted she “doesn’t have what it takes” to be President.

Reminiscent of his spurious claims about former President Barack Obama’s citizenship, Mr. Trump also last week spread a false “birther” claim about Ms. Haley when he shared a post on Truth Social from the Gateway Pundit, a far-right website that propagates baseless accusations, The Washington Post newspaper reported.

The post falsely suggested Ms. Haley was ineligible to be President or Vice-President because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born, it said.

The U.S. Constitution states that a natural-born citizen can be President, and Ms. Haley automatically became a U.S. citizen when she was born in South Carolina in 1972.

Mr. Trump’s use of Ms. Haley’s birth name comes as the topic of racism has emerged as a flash point among Republicans on the campaign trail, with Ms. Haley recently asserting that the United States is not and never was a racist nation, the newspaper said.

Friday wasn’t the first time Mr. Trump has mocked Ms. Haley’s name. After the Iowa caucuses on Monday, Mr. Trump embarked on a tirade against Ms. Haley, misspelling her first name.

“Anyone listening to Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley’s whacked-out speech last night, would think that she won the Iowa Primary,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She didn’t, and she couldn’t even beat a very flawed Ron DeSanctimonious, who’s out of money, and out of hope. Nikki came in a distant THIRD!” DeSanctimonious is a Trump nickname for another Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Ms. Haley repeatedly stated that she has always gone by her middle name, which in Punjabi means “little one,” and that she changed her last name to Ms. Haley after marrying her husband, Michael Ms. Haley.

Mr. Trump, whose mother migrated to the United States from Scotland, has a history of using a rival’s name or background as a tool in his efforts to make rivals sound like they are not fully American.

During the 2016 presidential race, he referred to Senator Ted Cruz, who was then a Republican presidential candidate, by his first name, Rafael.

He also repeatedly mispronounced and drew out the first name of Kamala Harris, now the Vice-President, on the 2020 campaign trail.

Mr. Trump also built favour with the extreme right of the Republican Party when, in 2011, he began floating racist and baseless claims about Mr. Obama not being born in the United States, and he frequently emphasised Mr. Obama’s middle name, Hussein.

Civil rights leaders denounced Mr. Trump’s remarks as a racist appeal to White people, who make up more than 92% of the population in New Hampshire, according to the latest census figures.

Elder James Johnson, head of the Racial Justice Network in South Carolina, said on Jan. 19 that Mr. Trump’s remarks are his way of saying “she is not one of us, that she is a Brown person, that she is not a White person.” By referencing the birth name Ms. Haley has not used in public life, Mr. Trump is “sending a message to white nationalists,” said Mr. Johnson, who offered that he is “not a fan” of Ms. Haley overall.

Another civil rights activist said the racism behind Mr. Trump’s behaviour is obvious.

“Why is he actually even using this name? What purpose does it serve?” asked Anthony Poore, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Centre for Justice and Equity, a racial and social justice organisation.

Mr. Poore said Mr. Trump’s record — dating back to when he and his father were found guilty of housing discrimination against Black people, to attacks on Obama’s place of birth — makes clear what he is doing.

Asked on Jan. 19 on the campaign trail if Mr. Trump’s attacks against her are racist, Ms. Haley said in New Hampshire that she would “let the people decide” what the former President means.

“He’s clearly insecure. If he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he’s going and spending millions of dollars on TV, he’s insecure, he knows that something’s wrong,” Ms. Haley said. “I don’t sit there and worry about whether it’s personal or what he means by it.” The attacks on Ms. Haley come as she has continued to defend the notion that the United States is not a “racist country” and has “never been a racist country.” “Are we perfect? No,” Ms. Haley said on Fox News on Jan. 16. “But our goal is to always make sure we try and be more perfect every day that we can.” Ms. Haley’s father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, is a professor of biology who got his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia and later moved to Bamberg, a segregated town where Ms. Haley was born, to teach at nearby Voorhees College — a historically Black university.

Ms. Haley told Fox News that although she faced racism as a “Brown girl that grew up in a small rural town in South Carolina,” she became “the first female minority Governor in history, who became a U.N. Ambassador and who is now running for President.” “If that’s not the American Dream, I don’t know what is,” Ms. Haley continued. “You can sit there and give me all the reasons why you think I can’t do this. I will continue to defy everybody on why we can do this, and we will get it done.” In an interview with CNN, she acknowledged that America had its “stains” but said that “national self-loathing” was “killing” the United States.

“I want every Brown and Black child to see that and say, ‘No, I don’t live in a country that was formed on racism. I live in a country where they wanted all people to be equal, and to make sure that they had life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” Ms. Haley said.

When asked about Mr. Trump repeatedly referring to Ms. Haley as “Nimbra,” Mr. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email to The Washington Post, “Can you tell me how [Trump’s Truth Social] post would even be construed as racist?” When provided with a list of examples of how Mr. Trump has tried to “otherize” his foes by emphasising their race or background, Mr. Cheung added, “Sounds like those who take offence are engaging in faux outrage racism. They should get a life and live in the real world.”

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Trump and DeSantis jab at each other on campaign trail in first dueling appearances as 2024 candidates

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Former President Donald Trump kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism of his chief rival Ron DeSantis on Thursday, jumping immediately on remarks by the Florida governor on the campaign trail to try to highlight his own strength as the leading GOP presidential candidate.

Trump, appearing in Iowa as DeSantis campaigned in New Hampshire, made a point of telling about 200 members of a conservative club gathered at a Des Moines-area restaurant that they could ask him questions — an offer that came not long after DeSantis snapped at an Associated Press reporter who asked him why he wasn’t taking questions from voters at his events.

“A lot of politicians don’t take questions. They give a speech,” Trump said to audience members, many of whom wore red “Make America Great Again” hats espousing his political movement.

Trump, throughout the day, also repeatedly pushed back against DeSantis’ argument that it will take two terms in the White House to implement an agenda — a veiled reference to Trump, who can only serve one additional term.

“Who the hell wants to wait eight years?” Trump said, claiming it would only take him six months to unwind President Joe Biden’s policies.

DeSantis, asked about the former president’s comment while leaving a voter event in Rochester on Thursday afternoon, noted that Trump had already had a chance to fix the nation’s problems in his first term in office. “Why didn’t he do it in his first four years?” he asked.

Their campaign appearances displayed an early tableau of the Republican primary that’s just getting underway: Trump hammering DeSantis and promising to use a return to the White House to quickly undo his successor’s work, while the governor limits his replies and direct critiques, pitching instead to nationalize his aggressive governing style.

Both men are portraying themselves as the stronger fighter for conservative causes and their party’s best chance to block Biden from reelection next year. Thursday was the first time both were on the campaign trail meeting with voters since DeSantis announced his candidacy for president last week.

At all four of his events in New Hampshire, DeSantis left the stage without inviting any questions from voters, which is typically expected of presidential candidates competing in the first-in-the-nation primary state. DeSantis also didn’t take any questions on stage from voters in Iowa during his time in the state earlier in the week.

While posing for pictures and shaking hands with voters after speaking at his first event in Laconia, DeSantis was asked by the AP reporter why he wasn’t taking questions from people in the audience.

“People are coming up to me, talking to me. What are you talking about? Are you blind?” he said. “Are you blind? People are coming up to me, talking to me whatever they want to talk to me about.”

Alan Glassman, treasurer of the state GOP, attended the event and said he was disappointed that the Florida governor didn’t include a question-and-answer period. Glassman and his wife decided to skip any subsequent events of the day given that DeSantis wasn’t likely to take unscripted questions.

“This is New Hampshire. The reality here is the vast majority of political people here in New Hampshire, we do our due diligence. We want to know where these people stand. And a lot of that is hearing from them and then asking them questions,” Glassman said.

“I’m just hoping that next time the governor does show up here, he’ll actually be doing some more interaction with the people,” Glassman said.

In addition to his subtle jabs at Trump, DeSantis in New Hampshire turned his focus to Biden, criticizing him for championing a move to demote the early-voting state from its prominent role picking presidential candidates. He said the president was wrong to back a Democratic National Committee move to have New Hampshire hold its Democratic primary the same day as Nevada as part of a major shakeup meant to empower Black and other minority voters critical to the party’s base of support.

The Republican Party’s calendar is decided separately, but the Democrats’ changes have irked members of both parties in New Hampshire.

“I’m glad Republicans are holding the line and committed to New Hampshire,” DeSantis said.

Matt Johnson, a 55-year-old consultant from Windham, New Hampshire, who attended DeSantis’ third event of the day in Salem, said Trump and DeSantis present voters with a real choice but he liked that DeSantis “has proven he actually can get stuff done in government.”

Trump “talked a lot and he got some stuff done but he didn’t really get a lot of things done that he probably should have,” Johnson said. “As for the cult of personality thing, I’ve had enough of that.”

But Walter Kirsch, 64, of Warner, New Hampshire, said Republicans must realize that, despite being “gruff” at times, Trump will ultimately be the party’s nominee in 2024. Warner, who was among several dozen supporters waving Trump flags outside a DeSantis event Thursday evening in Manchester, said he hoped DeSantis “will think about what he’s doing and bow out of this and give it to the man who’s earned it.”

“Ron DeSantis has been doing an amazing job in Florida. He should stay there. I feel he may be destroying his political career,” Kirsch said.

Seeking to draw a contrast with DeSantis, Trump took questions from voters at all of his Thursday events, which included a breakfast meeting in Urbandale, a Trump team volunteer leadership training event outside Des Moines in Grimes and a private meeting with about 50 pastors at a Des Moines church, though the last event was closed to the media.

He later recorded a town hall with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity in the Des Moines suburb of Clive that aired Thursday evening, telling the host DeSantis had “had a very bad day today. He got very angry at the press.”

As Trump and DeSantis make their pitch to GOP voters, the Republican presidential field is shaping up to become even more crowded.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch a Republican presidential campaign June 6 in New Hampshire. The next day, both Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum are expected to announce campaigns of their own.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and biotech entrepreneur and “anti-woke” activist Vivek Ramaswamy are among the other candidates already in the race.

During the town hall, Trump called the ballooning field — which critics worry will split the anti-Trump vote — a “good thing” for his candidacy, but wondered why some long-shot candidates are bothering.

“What’s the purpose?” he asked. “I don’t understand what they’re doing.”

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