Donald Trump’s Attempt to Otherize Nikki Haley Is a Familiar Tool From His Playbook

After a commanding win in the Iowa caucuses Monday, Donald Trump’s fire is now squarely focused on Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who finished third in Iowa and currently trails the former president by less than 14 points in New Hampshire, where the second contest of the Republican nominating process is slated for January 23. Trump has accused Haley of threatening to cut Social Security benefits, claimed she supports raising taxes, and tried to weaponize her first name against her. “Anyone listening to Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley’s wacked out speech last night, would think that she won the Iowa Primary,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Tuesday, misspelling Nimarata, Haley’s given first name. “She didn’t, and she couldn’t even beat a very flawed Ron DeSanctimonious, who’s out of money, and out of hope,” he added.

Trump’s attempt to other Haley’s name and cast it as alien or different to the predominantly white Republican electorate is a familiar tool from the GOP front-runner’s playbook. Haley has gone by her middle name, Nikki, since childhood; Nikki is also a Punjabi word that means “little one.” Trump attempted similar ploys against Barack Obama, emphasizing his Arabic-derived middle name, Hussein. Kamala Harris received the same treatment. He has also weaponized pronunciation against Pete Buttigieg, pronouncing his surname “Boot-edge-edge.”

Haley’s first name was previously raised by Vivek Ramaswamy, an erstwhile Republican candidate who terminated his campaign Monday and endorsed Trump. In response, Haley told Fox News in August, “I was born with Nikki on my birth certificate, I was raised as Nikki.” She added, “I married a Haley, and so that is what my name is, so he can say or misspell or do whatever he wants.”

In another familiar attack to cast an enemy as un-American, Trump, who promoted the racist birtherism conspiracy theory that claimed Obama was foreign-born and thus ineligible for the presidency, circulated a Gateway Pundit post claiming that Haley should be barred from running for president because her parents were not US citizens when she was born. This argument is false: Haley was born in South Carolina in 1972, making her a natural-born citizen qualified to run for president under the 14th Amendment. That her parents became naturalized citizens after she was born is immaterial.

Despite trailing Trump by double digits in most New Hampshire polls, Haley’s support there is stronger than in any other state. Put plainly, New Hampshire’s primary could be the last and best chance at a victory for anti-Trump Republicans. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who narrowly bested Haley for second place in Iowa, is polling in the mid-single digits in New Hampshire, which likely explains why Haley has elected to withdraw from a one-on-one debate with DeSantis that ABC News had scheduled for Thursday. The Haley campaign has said she will only participate in debates that include Trump or Joe Biden going forward. 

Of course, a one-off Trump loss next week still may not be enough to make the primary competitive. In South Carolina, the next state on the GOP primary calendar and Haley’s home state, Trump leads Haley by almost 30 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s composite polling average.