MANCHESTER, New Hampshire– MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (AP) — Donald Trump is surrounding himself with leaders from Nikki Haley’s home state in a show of force ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
According to his campaign, Trump will be joined at a rally at the NHU Arena in Manchester on Saturday evening by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, the state’s lieutenant governor and a host of other senior officials, including the attorney general, the treasurer and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. . U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson, William Timmons and Russell Fry will also appear.
The performances are yet another blow by South Carolina against Haley, who hopes her appeal among independent and unaffiliated voters will propel her to a strong enough finish in New Hampshire to turn the race into a two-person contest against Trump.
It comes a day after Trump received the endorsement of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who joined him at a rally in Concord. Haley had elevated Scott, who dropped his own bid for the Republican nomination in November, from the House of Representatives to the Senate, making him one of the nation’s most prominent Black Republicans.
McMaster and other top officials had already supported Trump. Haley has had a famously fractious relationship with many of her state’s Republican power brokers, even as she was twice elected governor — defeating McMaster the first time in the Republican primary.
Her reaction on Saturday made it clear that she had not forgotten that rivalry.
“I’m sorry, is that the person I became governor and punched?” she told reporters, according to a video of the event. “Just checking.
Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney also dismissed the appearances at an event hosted by Bloomberg News, insisting that endorsements had “never been Nikki’s game.”
Haley, meanwhile, highlighted a Trump gaffe at his rally Friday night after Scott gave him a rousing show of support.
Trump repeatedly suggested that Haley had been in charge of keeping the Capitol safe on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building to prevent his election loss from being certified.
‘They say he got confused. That he was talking about something else, that he was talking about Nancy Pelosi,” Haley said. “When you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can’t have someone else who we’re wondering if he/she is mentally fit to do this.”
___
AP National Politics Writer Steve Peoples in Keene, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.