The Trump campaign on Tuesday predicted the former president will clinch the necessary delegates to become the presumptive Republican nominee for president no later than March 19, arguing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has no path to victory.
In a memo shared with the press, senior Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote that Haley’s campaign will effectively end with Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
“Of course, like any wailing loser hell-bent on an alternative reality and refusing to come to grips with her imminent political mortality, we should expect more references to Kings and Coronations — even though the results of 5 elections overwhelmingly sent an unmistaken message: Nikki Haley doesn’t represent Republicans any more than Joe Biden does,” the two Trump advisers wrote.
The Trump campaign noted the former president romped to victory in Iowa, defeated Haley by double digits in New Hampshire and won the Nevada caucuses, in which she did not compete.
LaCivita and Wiles argued that even under a “worst case” model in which Haley performed as well as she did in New Hampshire in upcoming primaries, Trump would win 114 delegates in South Carolina, 773 delegates on Super Tuesday and 162 delegates the following two weeks, giving him the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination on March 19.
But under a more optimistic model for the Trump campaign, Trump would clinch the nomination March 12, the two wrote.
“Which is all to say, before March Madness tips off next month, President Trump will be the Republican nominee for President,” the two wrote.
Trump and his allies have pressured Haley to drop out of the GOP primary for weeks, arguing the party and the former president would be better served by turning their attention to President Biden and the general election.
But the former South Carolina governor has vowed to remain in the race, traveling to future primary states including Texas and California to raise campaign cash.
“Ten days after South Carolina, another 20 states vote. I mean, this isn’t Russia. We don’t want someone to go in and just get 99 percent of the vote,” she told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “What is the rush? Why is everybody so panicked about me having to get out of this race?”