Just as former president Donald Trump was getting ready to board his plane at LaGuardia Airport on Saturday to head to Nevada for a campaign rally, the news broke: a Manhattan jury had found that Trump should pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for libel.
Friday’s decision concluded a week in which Trump had completed his sweep in the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses, and he wished to turn his attention to Joe Biden, the vice president.
It served as a stark reminder that alongside his pursuit of a third consecutive Republican nomination, Trump is engaged in a number of other battles, such as those in federal and state courts and an increasingly heated Republican primary contest with Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina.
This weekend, Trump and Biden are making their way to states where they are sure bets to win their party’s early-February nominating contests—South Carolina for Biden and Nevada for Trump—in preparation for a reprise of their 2020 fight.
As she prepares for the February 24th Republican primary in South Carolina, Haley will hold two events over the weekend while she continues her month-long campaign as Trump’s only remaining opponent.
Throughout the week, Trump made multiple unannounced appearances in court, took the stand for brief periods of time, and then left before the verdict was announced, giving his lawyer Alina Habba the opportunity to address the news cameras assembled on his behalf. All in all, he attempted to turn the courtroom into a campaign space.
The abuse of power in our judicial system has gotten out of hand. Their actions have effectively curtailed the right to free speech. You are not in America! This is what Trump stated on Friday through his social media platform, Truth Social.
Republican primary voters in 2024 were swayed by Trump’s legal challenges, which included federal and state charges related to his attempts to reverse the 2020 election.
But Haley has recently enraged the former president because, after coming in eleven points behind Trump in New Hampshire, she has maintained her participation in the GOP campaign.
“Donald Trump wants to be the presumptive Republican nominee and we’re talking about $83 million in damages,” Haley remarked on Friday on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, following news of the Carroll verdict. We are not addressing the matter of repairing the border. Combating inflation is not our topic here. The United States is capable of more than Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Following nearly a year of mostly avoiding any direct confrontation with Trump, Haley has increasingly used Trump’s public words and court battles to argue that he would lose in November. This includes an angry speech that he gave Tuesday night following his victory in New Hampshire.
In her two-pronged attack on Trump’s age (he will turn 78 on Election Day) and Biden’s age (he will be 81), as well as her doubts about Trump’s mental capacity, Haley has become a symbol of the flaws in both men’s character.
Conservative audiences have rallied behind the ex-president following his civil trials and criminal charges, and her attacks on him have intensified in recent days.
President Trump, according to Haley’s Friday interview with Fox News, is “totally unhinged” and has driven away the moderates and independents who are crucial to the party’s chances of defeating Biden.
“Not only will I defeat Republicans, but guess who else I defeat? He loses to me when it comes to independents and moderates. Reason enough for his 2018 defeat. He lost 2020 because of that. In reference to the dismal showing by the Republican Party in the midterms and Trump’s subsequent defeat at the hands of Biden, she argued that this was the reason for his loss in 2022.
The fight is being fought by Nikki Haley.
With polls showing her far behind Trump in her home state and some donors increasingly hesitant to give to her efforts after Trump declared on Truth Social that they would be exiled from his political movement for doing so, Haley, whom Trump appointed as his US ambassador to the UN, continues to be a long shot to win the GOP nomination.
But by drawing attention to the political toll that the party’s devotion to Trump has taken in the last several elections, Haley is expressing the discontent of some Republicans.
We must constantly challenge him and strive to defeat him if we are to succeed. In addition, Nikki Haley is currently engaged in this battle, and I believe she should continue to do so,” stated Liz Cheney, a former Wyoming representative who was defeated in a 2022 primary by a candidate favoured by Trump, on Thursday’s liberal “Pod Save America” show.
On Saturday, Haley will hold a rally in her home state of Mauldin, and on Sunday, she will hold another rally in Conway.
On Monday, she has a number of fundraisers planned in New York, and on Wednesday, she will have events in Palm Beach and Miami. This will kick off an important week of fundraising for her. There will be thirteen fundraisers scheduled by Haley’s campaign in five states (New York, Florida, California, South Carolina, and Texas) throughout the next thirty-five days.
Her campaign has boasted of raising $2.6 million in donations since New Hampshire’s polls closed, but there are legitimate concerns over her capacity to retain contributors’ support and their concerns about the future of her campaign.
Another clue that the battle for the GOP presidential nomination could stretch on is that SFA Fund, the primary super PAC backing Haley’s campaign, has started purchasing media in South Carolina.
The Greenville, Myrtle Beach, and Charlotte media markets were SFA Fund’s first targets when they started booking TV airtime on Friday, according to AdImpact statistics. Although the group has only spent approximately $6,700 thus far, it promised to spend $1 million on its first ad buy in South Carolina in a document that announced their haul of $50 million in the second part of last year, suggesting that much more spending is imminent.
At the same time as Americans For Prosperity Action has spent over $3 million advertising in the state in support of Haley, her campaign has announced that it will spend up to $4 million on its first major ad buy in the state.