Donald Trump has added former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany to the list of Republicans he has labeled “RINO” after she advised him to “look under the hood” and strike a “general election tone” after he had attacked his remaining rival after his victory in New Hampshire.
McEnany delivered the blunt and seemingly unwelcome advice during live commentary on Fox News, on a night when Trump spent much of his victory speech torching rival Nikki Haley, calling her a “cheater” and grumbling: “I don’t get too angry, I get revenge.”
“I don’t need advice from RINO Kayleigh McEnany on Fox,” Trump vented online shortly before midnight Tuesday, at a time when he might have been enjoying his 12-point victory with a glide path to the Republican nomination even while fighting criminal justice charges that could land him in jail.
“I just had a GIANT VICTORY over a badly failing candidate, ‘Birdbrain,’ and she’s telling me what I can do better. Save your advice for Nikki!’ Trump growled.
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany encouraged Donald Trump to ‘look under the hood’ and strike a general election tone after roasting rival Nikki Haley in his victory speech
McEnany had pointed out potential red flags for Trump on Fox and raised the prospect that Trump could face challenges in the general election.
“President Trump, I would go home tonight, I would go to my victory party, I would celebrate, I made history again. But then I went home and looked under the hood,” she said.
“And if you look under the hood of our voter analysis data from Fox News, you’ll see that 32 percent of Republicans say, ‘We won’t vote for Trump,’” she added.
‘So I’m going home, if I’m Trump, I’m celebrating. And then I say: ‘I have to unite this party. I have to win independent parties.’ That’s how I beat Biden.”
That happened despite McEnany calling Trump the “presumptive nominee.”
Trump blasted Haley for promising to continue her campaign, calling her an ‘imposter’
Other rivals Trump has attacked, Vivek Ramaswamy (far left) and Senator Tim Scott (left), have supported Trump, as has Ron DeSantis, who called Trump “DeSanctimonious.”
Trump sometimes brought McEnany to the stage while campaigning for re-election, as he did at a Make America Great Again campaign rally on October 19, 2020 in Prescott, Arizona.
Trump called McEnany (r) a “RINO,” meaning he is a Republican in name only. The reverse features Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified before the House committee on January 6
“If you look at the Republican Party, seven in 10 Nikki Haley voters said, I wouldn’t vote for Trump. There was a poll in the Des Moines Register where 43 percent said, No, I wouldn’t vote for Trump. If I’m Trump, I sit back and focus solely on the general election, I adopt the stance of a presumptive nominee. I’m focusing on the number one unifying the party and the number two on winning the independent party, with Nikki Haley winning 55 to 39 percent. That’s what I would do.’
Her tone advice was given after Trump loaded his victory speech with attacks on Haley.
“We hit her so hard,” he said.
“Ron (DeSantis) hit her too. He came second and left. She came third and she’s still hanging around,” he complained.
“In life you can’t let people get away with bull***,” he said. ‘You just can’t do that. When I looked at her, the beautiful dress, it probably wasn’t like that, I said, what is she doing? We won.’
McEnany was Trump’s last press secretary. She announced her departure days after January 6 and ended up handing in some of her final days remotely.
Her last press conference consisted of a two-minute statement the day after the riot at the Capitol.
“Those who violently besieged our Capitol are the antithesis of everything this administration stands for,” she said, stating that “those who work in this building are working to ensure an orderly transition of power.”