Trump ups attacks on Haley in Iowa: ‘She likes the globe. I like America first’

Former President Trump increased his attacks on former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at an Iowa rally on Friday, going after the candidate as she rises in polls.

“Nikki Haley’s campaign is being funded by Biden donors,” Trump said, later dubbing her a “globalist.”

“She likes the globe. I like America first,” he added. “The establishment losers and sellouts lagging far behind us in the Republican primary can’t be trusted on taxes or trade or anything else. They’re globalists, and they always will be.”

The attacks come as Haley closes in on Trump’s lead in New Hampshire. She trails the former president by nearly 12 points in The Hill/Decision Desk HQ average of polls. While it is still a large margin, the gap is closer than any candidate in any other early primary state.

Trump also criticized Haley for her comments last week failing to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War. She instead discussed freedom and state’s rights issues as causes for the conflict when asked by a New Hampshire voter, which brought waves of criticism from both sides of the aisle, including from fellow GOP primary candidates.

She then blamed the questions on a “plant” and dismissed concerns of racism because she “had Black friends growing up,” responses that only increased the criticism.

“She does not have what it takes,” Trump said at the rally.

Haley spokesperson Nachama Soloveichik defended the campaign in a statement to The New York Times.

“If Trump feels so strongly about his false attacks, he should stop hiding and defend them on the debate stage in Des Moines,” she said. “[Trump] probably doesn’t remember that Nikki Haley passed one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country in 2011, because he was still a New York City liberal.”