Trump Claims He Deliberately Mixed Up Pelosi With Haley: “It’s Very Hard To Be Sarcastic”

During a speech in New Hampshire last month, Donald Trump attempted to justify some of his previous gaffes. For example, he repeatedly mixed up former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with his 2024 Republican opponent, Nikki Haley, while discussing the January 6th assault on the Capitol. As reported by The Hill, Trump said on Wednesday at a North Charleston rally, "When I say that Obama is the president of our country ... they go, ‘He doesn’t know that it’s Biden! He doesn’t know.’ So, it’s very hard to be sarcastic. So it’s very hard to be sarcastic when I interpose."

Trump added, "I’m not a Nicki fan, and I’m not a Pelosi fan. And when I purposely interpose names, they said, ‘He didn’t know Pelosi from Nikki, from tricky Nikki. I interpose and they make a big deal out of it. I said, ‘No, no, I think they both stink, they have something in common they both stink.’ Remember this. When I make a statement like that about Nikki that means she will never be running for vice president."

On January 19, when speaking to his supporters in New Hampshire, Trump said that "Nikki Haley [was] in charge of security" during the Capitol incident on January 6, 2020. He said at the time, "By the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. You know Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley. You know they — do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it."

Trump and his supporters often assert that he was 'joking' or being 'sarcastic' after making remarks that cause shock or mockery. During his presidential campaign in 2016, he asked Russia to locate and make public emails that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, had erased. He said his remarks had been made 'in jest and sarcastically' during the ensuing clamor.

Trump furiously informed reporters that he was being 'sarcastic' in 2020, according to NBC News, after coming under fire across the globe for stating that injecting disinfectant and pouring sunshine 'into the body' may be a therapy for Covid; however, he did not clarify why or how his remarks could have been sarcastic. During the continuing Covid epidemic, he told a crowd in Oklahoma that he had instructed doctors to 'slow the testing down.' That same year, his then-White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said he had merely been 'joking.'

Several recent surveys indicate that former governor Nikki Haley is faring behind Trump in her home state of South Carolina, with the election little over a week away. Trump's hold on the state of South Carolina holds firm despite Haley's claim that she outperforms President Joe Biden. Trump was ahead of Haley by 65% to 29% among probable GOP primary voters, according to a Winthrop University poll. Trump leads by 35 points, 65% to 30%, according to a CBS News survey that was published on Monday. Nearly 90% of Trump's followers, according to that survey, are steadfast in their choice and unlikely to change it.