Haley raises money off Trump donor threat

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is capitalizing on threats that former President Trump made to her potential donors by selling merchandise and raising money for her campaign.

On Wednesday evening, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that anyone who contributes to Haley would be “permanently barred from the MAGA camp” — a movement based on his 2016 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Haley — who served as ambassador to the U.N. under the former president’s administration — and her campaign responded by raising money off his words.

“Enough said…Grab your shirt here!” Haley said Thursday in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, linking to a site where donors can donate $5 to get a T-shirt that reads “Barred. Permanently.”

The former president won the New Hampshire primary earlier this week over Haley by a margin of 11 points, according to Decision Desk HQ. But, he still attacked her in a victory speech, ridiculing his only remaining rival in the GOP primary for her outfit and optimistic concession speech.

“I have to tell you — it was very interesting, because I said, ‘Wow what a great victory,’ but then somebody ran up to the stage all dressed up nicely when it was at 7, but now I just walked up, and it was at 14,” Trump said Tuesday evening.

“Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night,” Trump said. “She had a very bad night.”

Following Trump’s initial warning, one of his former staffers donated to Haley’s campaign.

“Done,” Sarah Matthews, who left the Trump administration after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, wrote on X, featuring a link to donate to Haley’s campaign. “Join me in donating to @NikkiHaley here.”

Matthews was one of several former Trump officials who testified before the House Jan. 6 panel that was investigation the insurrection.

In his initial post making the pledge to snub Haley allies, Trump said he noticed that when he won his first election, “the losing Candidate’s ‘Donors’ would immediately come to me, and want to ‘help out… This is standard in Politics, but no longer with me.”

“Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp,” he wrote, using the nickname he’s given to Haley. “We don’t want them, and will not accept them, because we Put America First, and ALWAYS WILL!”