Former Donald Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said the former president’s campaign staff probably weren’t too pleased with his gloating post about Nikki Haley’s withdrawal from the race.
“He always gives in to his worst instincts,” Griffin told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday. “I guarantee that his campaign … did not want a statement like this to go out.”
“They would have liked something a bit softer to try to reach some of those Nikki Haley voters, but he just can’t get over the personal grievance.”
“I’m sure he’s spiraling over the fact that she won Vermont,” he added, referring to the former South Carolina governor’s only win in Super Tuesday’s 15 GOP primaries and caucuses.
Shortly before Haley formally ended her campaign on Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social that she had been “TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion.”
He insisted, baselessly, that “much of her money came from Radical Left Democrats, as did many of her voters, almost 50%, according to the polls.”
He then invited Haley supporters to “join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation,” despite having criticized them.
He ended with an all-caps message: “BIDEN IS THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
President Joe Biden put out his own statement Wednesday, saying Trump had made it clear he didn’t want Haley’s supporters, but “there is a place for them in my campaign.”
Though Trump won all but two of the primary contests against Haley — she also won in Washington, D.C. ― political analysts say her performance still underscored weaknesses for Trump in the general election.
