Donald Trump launches attack in clearest picture yet of what’s to come in 2024
America’s broadcast news media has descended on New Hampshire in droves, bringing the industry’s traditional breathless coverage to the state’s primary elections that take place on Tuesday.
But there’s nothing traditional about this year’s contest. By Wednesday morning the anchors and reporters treading the boards in Manchester – the state’s election headquarters – will be ones making the concession speeches. They will have to admit the obvious: that the “race” for the Republican party’s presidential nomination is over, even before it really began.
Donald Trump wants a big win in New Hampshire, and the polls continue to suggest that he’ll score one. Since his victory in Iowa one week ago, he has relentlessly turned his firepower on Nikki Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina and the only competitor he faces in the Granite State after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ rapid withdrawal.
The former President plastered New Hampshire’s airwaves this weekend with a fresh raft of ads targeting Haley, who previously served as his Ambassador to the United Nations.
In a series of email blasts, he variously warned voters that “Nikki Haley Will Raise Your Taxes”, “Nikki Haley Loves China”, “Nikki Haley is Funded by Democrats, Wall Street & Globalists” and “Nikki Haley is Weak on Immigration”.
The coup de grâce came last Friday. “She’s not presidential timber,” Trump told supporters at an event in Concord. He went on to dismiss any suggestion that Haley might serve as his running mate, describing the idea as “off the table”.
Haley professes to be possibly the only person in America who still sees a path for her to derail Trump’s presidential ambitions. She spent the weekend raising questions about his mental fitness for office, after Trump confused Haley with Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, in a speech on Friday night.
She pulled pints in a Nashua tavern, raised questions about Trump’s relations with global dictators, criticised his “bromance” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned of the “chaos” that she claims follows Trump wherever he goes.
But polls suggest her efforts to barnstorm the state are getting her nowhere. If anything, she’s only losing fresh ground. Trump’s numbers in New Hampshire continue to climb as election day approaches.
A loss in New Hampshire on Tuesday night will deliver Haley a terminal blow. Were she to choose to remain in the race, her next comeuppance would take place next month in her home state. Trump is almost 40 points ahead of her in South Carolina. She faces no immediate prospect of turning that around, and will almost certainly seek to avoid being routed on her home turf.
On Friday, Senator Tim Scott – also from South Carolina – twisted the knife. He travelled to New Hampshire to offer Trump his full-throated endorsement just two months after he suspended his own campaign for the Republican nomination.
“We need a President who will unite our country,” Scott told Trump supporters at a joint appearance with the Republican front-runner in Concord. “We need Donald Trump,” he claimed, despite copious evidence that the former President has no capacity to unite the country, having served as the most divisive leader in modern American history.
The air is thick with speculation that Trump may be eyeing Scott as a possible vice-presidential candidate. Certainly, he could help cement Trump’s lead over Biden in several southern battleground states. Although it’s also possible that Trump – who says he has already made his choice – will look elsewhere for a running mate and save a senior Cabinet position for the only black Republican in the US Senate.
It is an indication of how far this presidential election has already moved that Trump’s team can focus on running mates and plans for governance. President Biden, on the back foot, dismissed Trump’s win in Iowa last week. “I don’t think it means anything,” he told reporters, pointing to low turnout in the state’s caucuses rather than Trump’s resounding victory there.
But as Trump racks up victory after victory, the President will find it harder to dismiss his opponent’s achievements. By the time the daffodils bloom, the country will be cruising towards the rematch between the two old warhorses that so many voters desperately hoped to avoid.