Donald Trump’s campaign turned its sights full-bore on Nikki Haley on Monday after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the Republican White House race and endorsed the divisive former president.
The battle to choose a nominee for November’s US election narrowed to a two-horse race ahead of Tuesday's New Hampshire primaries after Mr DeSantis withdrew following his distant second place to Mr Trump in Iowa last week.
“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” the governor said in a social media video on Sunday night.
The post was tagged with words about the value of courage commonly misattributed to Winston Churchill but which Britain’s wartime leader never said - some attribute them to a Budweiser beer advertisement from the 1930s. The error underlined the charge of inauthenticity that continually dogged Mr DeSantis after he initially emerged as a frontrunner to take on Mr Trump.
The governor continued: “I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honour that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 21, 2024
- Winston Churchill pic.twitter.com/ECoR8YeiMm
Nikki Haley came third in Iowa and the former UN ambassador is polling second in New Hampshire behind Mr Trump, who is also well ahead in her home state of South Carolina, where she served two terms as governor, ahead of its primary on February 24.
A Trump campaign memo said she was down to two options assuming she loses in New Hampshire. “Option A: Nikki Haley drops out, unites behind President Trump, and commits to defeating Joe Biden,” senior strategists for the former president wrote.
“Option B: Nikki Haley prepares to be absolutely DEMOLISHED and EMBARRASSED in her home state of South Carolina,” they said. “Now, for some important advice. Choose wisely.”
But Ms Haley vowed to fight on, backed by anti-Trump Republicans who fear his many court battles could derail his nomination and leave the field clear for President Biden in November. She told cheering supporters in New Hampshire: “It’s now one feller and one lady left.”
Mr Trump was unusually conciliatory about his departed rival, declaring that he had “officially retired” the insult Ron DeSanctimonious and calling him a “really terrific person”. There were no such overtures to Ms Haley, whom he has been increasingly attacking with racial overtones.
On campaign stops in New Hampshire, Mr Trump has mocked her Sikh first name Nimarata and questioning falsely whether she is eligible on nationality grounds to run for president - reprising his unfounded “birther” conspiracy against Barack Obama.
She in turn queried his mental health this weekend, after he appeared to confuse her with Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in relation to the Capitol Hill riot in January 2021 by a mob of his supporters.
Mr DeSantis sought to out-Trump Trump on Republican Right-wing platforms such as abortion and gay rights, pointing to his tax-slashing and "anti-woke" administration of Florida. But on the national stage, he emerged as a wooden campaigner and suffered numerous setbacks starting with a glitch-ridden campaign launch on Twitter alongside Elon Musk.
His elimination leaves the former president a big step closer to a rematch of his 2020 battle with Joe Biden, and polling in battleground states gives the edge to Mr Trump in November. That is being met with dismay by critics abroad such as Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
She tweeted: “It’s 2024 and people are seriously calling for someone to be President of the USA who falsely claims the last election was stolen from them, will face charges for inciting insurrection, was found liable of sexually abusing a woman, obstructed investigations, abused his power to pardon his friends, and has indictments which amount to a total of 91 felony charges?
“Completely mind-blowing.”
