Trump says Haley rally was ’embarrassment to her wonderful husband’
Former President Trump took a swipe at GOP challenger Nikki Haley for what he claimed was low attendance at her weekend rally, calling it an “embarrassment” to her husband, who is deployed overseas.
“Tricky Nikki is CRASHING in the Polls. She is 15 points down to Crooked Joe Biden, and I’m crushing him in all Polls. She’s got no reason to make it to the South Carolina Primary,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday.
“The other day, she had almost no people attend her “rally” (We had thousands and thousands who couldn’t even get into the large arena), an embarrassment to her wonderful husband, in Africa,” he added. “I think he should come back home to help save her dying campaign.”
Both candidates have turned their attention to Haley’s home state of South Carolina, which will hold its primary Feb. 24. Haley, the former governor of the Palmetto State, launched a two-week bus tour across the state Saturday.
It is not clear which Haley rally Trump is referring to, though media reports stated a couple hundred people were gathered outside of one of them Saturday in Newberry, S.C.
His reference to Haley’s husband — Maj. Michael Haley — comes as the former president faces harsh criticism over his mockery of Michael’s absence on the campaign trial.
“What happened to her husband?” Trump asked at a South Carolina campaign event over the weekend. “Where is he? He’s gone. He knew. He knew.”
Michael is currently abroad with the South Carolina Army National Guard on a yearlong mission in the Horn of Africa. He is deployed as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.
Haley, in a series of interviews Sunday and Monday, slammed the former president’s comments, which she called “disgusting” and “insulting to military families.”
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She also released a roughly 90-second ad that showcased Trump’s past mocking of veterans, including his 2015 remarks about whether then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, should be considered a hero because Trump liked “people who weren’t captured.”
The former president said Tuesday he watched a recent interview from Haley and argued on Truth Social: “Tricky Nikki is suffering from a terminal disease, Trump Derangement Syndrome. Not a pretty thing to watch!”
Trump holds a 32.7-point lead over Haley in the Palmetto State, according to a polling index from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ. The former governor, who also served as ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, has pledged to stay in the race until at least Super Tuesday, March 5, despite disappointing losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
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