Trump ramps up attacks on Nikki Haley before NH primary, barely mentioning Ron DeSantis: ‘I think he’s gone’
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — DeSantis who?
Former President Donald Trump is lowering his attacks against former top 2024 rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, instead focusing in on Nikki Haley with full steam.
“You notice I didn’t mention the name of Ron DeSanctimonious yet,” Trump said 15 minutes into his speech.
“I think he’s gone.”
Amid single-digit polling in NH, DeSantis is hoping to make up ground in South Carolina — Haley’s home state — and was missing from the Granite State altogether on Saturday while campaigning in the south.
The Florida governor is set to come back to New Hampshire to hold an event Sunday night before barnstorming the state on Monday ahead of the Jan. 23 primary.
Trump also tore into Haley’s lagging support in South Carolina, where she was governor, by bringing out elected officials from the first-in-the-south primary state on stage.
“To the people of New Hampshire: all you need to know about Nikki Haley is that every globalist, liberal, Biden- supporter, and Never Trumper is on her side — and virtually every single leader in her home state of South Carolina is on our side,” Trump added.
Before his rally Saturday night in Manchester, Trump’s campaign handed the press a packet of Haley attacks to reference including items like her record on taxes, immigration and Democrat donors.
At a Concord campaign event on Friday, he bashed Haley’s record while she served as the UN ambassador under his administration.
“She’s not tough enough. She’s not smart enough and she isn’t respected enough,” Trump claimed.
Haley is Trump’s leading challenger in New Hampshire, with some polls showing her merely seven percentage points behind the 77-year-old.
Trump won the Iowa caucus by 30 points, but is urging voters to turn out on Tuesday for the first-in-the-nation primary, because “margins are important.”
So important, the Trump campaign is incentivizing volunteers to phone bank New Hampshire voters with rewards like getting a personalized signed Trump hat, a VIP ticket to a rally, or a picture taken with the former president.
“We have made hundreds of thousands of voter contacts across the state. We have the most robust army of volunteers on the ground of any campaign. We have 270 town captains. We have a county chair from every county, all 10 in the state, and we have 67 legislative endorsements,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told The Post at Trump’s New Hampshire HQ on Saturday morning.
“We are very confident in team Trump’s efforts to get President Trump over the finish line on Tuesday,” she added.
For Trump’s camp, the goal on Jan. 23 is to build on the “momentum” they got in Iowa, top Trump surrogate and upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik said Saturday.
At his Saturday rally, Trump urged voters to not listen to the polls and turn out to vote because “we need a big, big win against these terrible people.”
“We have to win by a lot because we have to send a signal for November: We’re coming,” he added.
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