The former president easily swept all five Republican nominating races (File)
Washington:
Donald Trump’s campaign plans to treat Nikki Haley as a non-issue after she dominates Saturday’s Republican primary in her home state of South Carolina, advisers say Her attacks instead focused on a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
The former president has easily swept all five races for the Republican nomination so far, winning states in the Midwest, Northeast, South and West, defeating every challenger along the way except former South Carolina Gov. Haley.
Trump’s advisers say they plan to ignore the only remaining Republican rival in an effort to make her campaign an afterthought. It would mark a change in strategy from a campaign that has savaged Haley in recent weeks, including a series of vitriolic online attacks, pressure to shift her donors to Trump and public ridicule from the former president.
They argue that attacking her further will only increase coverage of a candidate with no clear path to the Republican presidential nomination.
Campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita succinctly outlined the blueprint when asked about Haley on the sidelines of a Trump event on Friday.
“Who is Nikki?” LaCivita told Reuters.
Haley defiantly vowed to move forward on “Super Tuesday” on March 5, when voters in 15 states and one U.S. territory will choose one-third of the delegates to the Republican National Convention, which will A nominee will be selected in July.
“They have the right to make a real choice rather than have a Soviet-style election with just one candidate,” Haley told supporters after her defeat on Saturday night. “It’s my responsibility to give them that choice.”
Her campaign has unveiled an aggressive schedule for the coming days, during which she will travel across the country from Massachusetts to Utah.
Haley campaigned hard in South Carolina, the southern state where she grew up and served as governor from 2011 to 2017. But Trump won by more than 20 points, a margin large enough for the news media to call his campaign the moment the polls closed.
Still, she appears to be doing a little better than statewide polls predicted, which could give Haley a chance to argue she has some momentum as the race expands to more states.
In a speech to supporters, Haley said her vote share showed a significant number of Republicans remain suspicious of Trump.
mocking nikki haley
It remains to be seen whether Trump, who often turns off his teleprompter, can resist the urge to continue mocking Haley for using language criticized as sexist and racist.
But Trump appeared to be following his advisers’ strategy on Saturday. He did not mention Haley’s name once during daytime remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
That night, minutes after the polls closed, he delivered a victory speech in which Haley again failed to be mentioned — a stark contrast to his remarks after winning New Hampshire in January, when he angrily denounced her for refusing to drop out of the race.
LaCivetta and co-manager Susie Wiles said in a memo this week that the Trump campaign will focus on planning, fundraising for the party’s July convention as part of the shift to the November election. and an effective merger with the Republican National Committee.
“Nikki Haley is irrelevant and not newsworthy,” the memo said.
Meanwhile, Trump’s surrogates have not hesitated to express their view that Haley should drop out of the race so Trump can focus on the Nov. 5 presidential election.
South Carolina Congressman Russell Fry, who was on stage with Trump during his victory speech, said he believed the race was over.
“This is a primary in name only,” he told Reuters. “I think the Haley campaign is continuing to spend money and resources that could be better used to secure the White House.”
But some donors continue to provide financial support to Haley, arguing that she is the only option if Trump’s campaign fails.
He has pleaded not guilty to a series of criminal charges and is due to face his first criminal trial in New York next month on charges that he falsified business records to cover up an extramarital affair with a porn star.
“I think if something happens to Trump between now and the election, Nikki is actually the Republican backstop,” said a Haley donor who requested anonymity. “There’s probably a 2 percent chance, but if you talk about is to be the leader of the free world, why not?”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
