Haley trains guns on Trump before battle of New Hampshire 

Vivek Ramaswamy joins forces with Trump to attack Haley; Trump misspells Haley’s first name in new attack

Facing a make-or-break battle in New Hampshire, Indian American Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley is training her guns on former President Donald Trump basking in the glory of his landslide victory in Iowa caucuses.

One day after her third-place finish in Iowa, the campaign of the former US ambassador to the UN campaign and a pro-Haley super PAC began promoting TV ads in the state depicting Trump as a bully and a liar, according to Politico.

Her campaign released a memo calling Trump “more vulnerable than commonly believed.”

Nikki Haley calls herself ‘best hope of stopping Trump-Biden nightmare’ (January 16, 2024)

Haley also announced she would not participate in two scheduled debates with media outlets ahead of the New Hampshire primary unless Trump joined her on stage — suggesting she plans to ignore Ron DeSantis and train her fire on the frontrunner.

Together, these steps marked a pointed escalation from Haley’s tepid rebukes of Trump through the past year — and a new strategic approach as the race moves to New Hampshire, where she is polling closest to Trump and has her best, if not only, shot of wounding him, Politico noted.

“The race now moves to less Trump-friendly territory,” Betsy Ankeny, Haley’s campaign manager, was quoted as saying in a state of the race memo released just after Haley’s disappointing finish in Iowa.

Haley is trying to deliver her attacks in a manner palatable to Republican voters, Politico suggested. Her campaign’s new ad couches her criticism of Trump with a hit on President Joe Biden, her modus operandi on the campaign trail.

Vivek Ramaswamy suspends campaign, endorses Trump (January 16, 2024)

But the more aggressive shift in her campaign was unmistakable even before she arrived in New Hampshire, hosting the next primary on Jan 23. Hours before the Iowa caucuses were held on Monday, both Haley’s campaign and the super PAC supporting her dropped new ads in New Hampshire.

“Trump is lying about Nikki,” a New Hampshire voter says in the ad being aired by SFA Fund Inc, her aligned super PAC. “That’s what bullies do.”

In a separate ad, a narrator calls Trump and Biden “the two most disliked politicians in America,” saying “both are consumed by chaos, negativity, and grievances of the past.”

Meanwhile, after quitting the presidential race, fellow Indian American Vivek Ramaswamy has joined forces with Trump in targeting Haley.

Sharing the stage with Trump in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Ramaswamy talked about challenges inside the Republican Party, referring to Haley.

“If you want somebody who’s going to foist onto you to use your social media account, you want to use a driver’s license to do it, to have the right to use the Internet, this man’s not your man. There’s another candidate in this race who’ll do that for you. It’s Nikki Haley,” said Ramaswamy as Trump smiled from behind.

“If you want to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut veterans’ benefits so we can send more money to Ukraine so some kleptocrat can buy a bigger house — vote for Nikki Haley,” he said.

“But if you want an agenda that puts Americans first, there is no better choice left in this race than this man,” he added, pointing towards Trump.

“That is why I am asking you to do the right thing and to vote for Donald J. Trump as your next president because we don’t have a lot of time. We need a commander-in-chief who will lead us to victory in this war.”

During the event, Trump also took his time in targeting Haley, slamming the speech she delivered after her third-place finish in Iowa, calling it “inappropriate” and bad for the unity of the GOP.

Days after targeting Ramaswamy by calling him a fraud, Trump changed his tune and said it was an honor to receive endorsement from the 38-year-old entrepreneur. Trump also hinted at the possibility of including Ramaswamy in his cabinet if he came to power.

After the two leaders hugged, the boisterous audience started chanting “VP, VP” slogans, referring to Ramaswamy being made Trump’s running mate.

“He started off with a zippo and ended it very strong. He’ll be working with us for a long time,” said Trump.

Trump himself went after Haley while referring to her by her first name, Nimarata. Born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, the daughter of Indian immigrants took her husband Michael Haley’s last name after they married.

Trump misspelled Nimarata as “Nimrada” as he attacked her in a new post on his social media platform Truth Social, according to CNN.

“Anyone listening to Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley’s whacked-out speech last night, would think that she won the Iowa Primary. She didn’t, and she couldn’t even beat a very flawed Ron DeSanctimonious, who’s out of money, and out of hope,” Trump posted on Truth Social.