As Nikki Haley’s Poll Numbers Rise, Trump Attacks Her Citizenship Status, Same as He Did With Obama

As the Iowa caucuses emerge just around the corner, the political landscape has taken an unexpected turn, with former President Donald Trump redirecting his lethal attacks from Ron DeSantis to Nikki Haley. The intriguing shift in strategy highlights Haley’s surge in recent polls, specifically in New Hampshire, where a CNN survey highlights Trump’s lead narrowing to single digits. The Trump campaign’s backstep is palpable, with a strategic target on Haley’s immigration stance. After sidetracking ad campaigns against DeSantis, Trump’s team unraveled a barrage of television ads in New Hampshire, spending a staggering amount of $4.5 million. The ads aim to hitch Haley to President Joe Biden’s policies and criticize her stance on immigration, a move indicating the campaign's acknowledgment of her growing influence.

During campaign events in Iowa, Trump released his scorching remarks on Haley, making border security and immigration a central theme of his criticisms. His campaign’s email underscored Haley’s opposition to Trump’s travel ban on Muslim-majority countries and her alleged skepticism about constructing a border wall. In response, Haley asserted, “Just because President Trump says something doesn’t make it true, he’s taking snippets of things I said. I said, ‘You shouldn’t just do the border wall. You have to do more than that.’ That’s what I said.” Trump’s rhetoric took a darker turn when he escalated a post from a far-right outlet falsely claiming Haley’s ineligibility to run for president due to her parents’ citizenship status at the time of her birth. The false allegations echo Trump’s past racist lies about Barack Obama’s birthplace. Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, could make history as the first Asian American woman nominated by the GOP president.

Trump's senior adviser, Jason Miller, denies any change in strategy, attributing the shift to DeSantis's decline in the polls. “President Trump has always said that he’s going to train his sights on whoever is in second place, now as [DeSantis] plummets towards single digits… Nikki Haley just happens to be in second place.” Trump attacked Haley asserting, “Nikki Haley has been in the pocket of the open border establishment donors her entire career; she is a globalist. She likes the globe. I like America first.” As per CNN, one source shared, “Look, everything changes after Iowa. If he puts this away the way he should, that’s going to shift a lot of undecided voters in New Hampshire,”

The overarching question remains: can Trump's tactics, reminiscent of his controversial approach to Obama's citizenship, thwart Haley's ascent? As the countdown to the caucuses continues, the GOP primary landscape is anything but predictable. Trump's team hopes a commanding win in Iowa will reshape the narrative and sway undecided voters in New Hampshire, where the role of independent voters historically plays a pivotal role.