Racism, fascism and cruelty: Donald Trump’s New Hampshire performance in nine quotes
Even by the standards of Donald Trump, the former president spent the past week in New Hampshire unloading extreme rhetoric against Nikki Haley.
And even though Trump managed to spew racism, fascism and cruelty in his remarks and social media posts, New Hampshire didn’t punish him, giving him a convincing victory over Haley in Tuesday’s primary.
Here’s some of what Trump said in New Hampshire:
— After a man at a Trump rally Monday shouted, “12 years of Trump”: “You’re right. Don’t say that too loud. ... You know they love to call me a fascist.”
— Widely seen as a racist dog whistle, Trump referred to Haley’s birth name of Nimarata as “Nimrada.”
— “You know I’ve been indicted more than Al Capone. You ever heard of Al Capone? Probably the greatest mobster of them all.”
— Speaking about former President Jimmy Carter, 99, who is in hospice care: “He’s happy because his presidency is now considered brilliant in comparison to Joe Biden.”
— On the media: “These are sick people. We have to straighten out our free press.”
— Trump’s reaction to the notion that Haley would be stronger in the general election against President Joe Biden: "BIRDBRAIN HAS BEEN LYING ABOUT THIS, AND MANY OTHER THINGS, FOR WEEKS. SHE CAN’T BEAT THE DEMS."
— “Nikki Haley, I know well. Sadly, she’s made an unholy alliance with the RHINOS, the never-Trumpers … the globalists, the radical left communists.”
— “Nikki Haley is using radical Democrat money to fund the radical Democrat campaign operation that she’s running.”
— Reacting to a person who said, “Free the J6ers”: “We will.” He also referred to the jailed lawbreakers from the January 6 insurrection as “hostages.”
And all that was before Tuesday’s election results.
On CNN, a Trump voter who said he almost went for Haley said, “I felt that Trump has kind of left some of the past behind him and we’re not hearing vengeance language.”
Words spoken too soon: Trump touched that base in a victory speech seething over Haley’s insistence on remaining in the race.
“Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night,” Trump said.
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He added, “I don’t get too angry, I get even.”
Kaivan Shroff, press secretary for Dream For America, a group that aims to mobilize young progressive voters, said Trump’s grip on voters speaks volumes about Republican populism vs. old-school conservatism.
“Somehow there's this conversation of ‘Oh, can Haley save the day and win over these reasonable moderate people,’ and I think we saw in Iowa that's not who these Republican voters are,” Shroff said.
“The fact that Trump said ‘Immigrants poisoning the blood of Americans’ made, I think, over 40 percent of those Republican caucus voters in Iowa more likely to support him just really tells you something about who these voters are and who their base is. They aren't going for that moderate candidate.”
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Donald Trump, Marco Rubio (Photo by Jim Watson for AFP)
