Trump mocks Nikki Haley's first name. It's his latest example of attacking rivals based on race

[ificandream]

Source: Associated Press

BY BILL BARROW
Updated 1:17 PM PST, January 19, 2024

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump used his social media platform Friday to mock Nikki Haley‘s birth name, the latest example of the former president keying on race and ethnicity to attack people of color, especially his political rivals.

In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Nimbra.” Haley, the former South Carolina governor, was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has always gone by her middle name, “Nikki.” She took the surname “Haley” upon her marriage in 1996. Trump, himself the son, grandson and twice the husband of immigrants, called Haley “Nimbra” three times in the post and said she “doesn’t have what it takes.”

(snip)

Trump’s post was an escalation of recent attacks in which he referenced Haley’s given first name — though he’s misspelled it “Nimrada” — and falsely asserted she is ineligible for the presidency because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born in 1972.

Haley has dismissed Trump’s latest attacks as proof that she threatens his bid for a third consecutive nomination. “I’ll let people decide what he means by his attacks,” Haley told reporters in New Hampshire on Friday when asked about Trump’s false assertions that her heritage disqualifies her from the Oval Office. “What we know is, look, he’s clearly insecure if he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he’s spending millions of dollars on TV. He’s insecure, he knows that something’s wrong.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-nikki-haley-58b7ffa7e49f626bae481060cf9975d2

[Permanut]

1. If you are not the nominee, Nikki .

Who are you going to vote for?

[Aristus]

7. She will do as she is told.

She will vote for Trump. Just the same as she did what she was told when she said the Civil War was about anything other than slavery.

[getagrip_already]

2. He is attacking your gender, your race, your heritage...

He is attacking you for having had affairs (that's rich), for being stupid.

And you stand there and take it.

At least fight back. You are going to lose either way, but at least one way you keep your dignity.

[Mosby]

12. I think she wants to be his veep.

She's done more than just take his shit, she's actively defended him.

[getagrip_already]

15. He won't take her for all the reasons he is attacking her.....

She has to open her eyes.

He is a misogynistic racist. He doesn't want someone who could upstage him as number 2, and she can.

[MadameButterfly]

22. She hasn't learned the lesson Chris Christie

learned, and he has what he did on his conscience and now he can't fix it.

[Freethinker65]

17. Not going to happen

He wants someone easy to manipulate to do the boring parts of the job and give Trump the credit for his astute leadership. He knows Nikki is much smarter than him, politically savvy, and would take credit and media attention away from himself.

[NEOBuckeye]

29. Exactly. He won't be upstaged.

His ego is way too big. He will never settle for anyone stealing attention away from him, especially a woman.

[brush]

3. He mocks her first name and can't even get it right. What a mess the orange turd is.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

6. Looks like Syphilis is losing it.

I’d love to see Haley fire back at him about having an STD. I know it won’t happen but it would be great to see.

[FloridaBlues]

4. I was wondering when someone was going to say her birth name

I’m surprised it took this long.

[SilasSouleII]

28. Pretty sure that Ramaswamy did.

In the first or second debate

[pwb]

5. Humpty Trumpty Said that?

Fuck that loser.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. We've had our own troubles with birth names.

Many DUers referred to "PBO" instead of "BHO", maybe ashamed of the name "Barack Hussein Obama". It's the name he used at his inauguration, but there was still some denial here.

Barack. Hussein. Obama.

[Retrograde]

37. PBO 'President Barack Obama'

It’s an abbreviation for his title, not a misspelling

[Hekate]

38. This

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

39. Understood, but we never did such titular gymnastics with FDR, JFK, LBJ, WJC, HRC.

Maybe we do the "P: thing with JRB?

[ProudMNDemocrat]

9. What a PIG!

Perhaps the media and Press should be referring to the original spelling of his last name of Drumpf.

See how he likes them apples.

[niyad]

30. Please do not insult our porcine brethren and sistren like that.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Unfortunately, I've also seen DU members using her birth name to ridicule her. n/t

[Kennah]

11. People in glass houses, Donald

[Ziggysmom]

13. Wasnt his paternal grampy really named Friedrich Drumpf???

In his sucky art of the deal book he lies saying the family was from Sweden! Plus daddy ran brothels when he came to the US.

[IronLionZion]

18. And his maternal gramps was named Malcolm MacLeod in Scotland

[msongs]

14. she hides her roots then claims there is no racism lol nt

[MadameButterfly]

23. here here

[IronLionZion]

16. What it takes is being orange, fat, stupid, and very corrupt

His racist base loves it of course. Dumbass needs to lose average conservative voters who oppose this sort of thing.

Nimarata is kind of a nice interesting name.

Donald is like a cartoon duck name

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. MAGAs say, "I like Trump because he speaks his mind"

[XorXor]

21. Buuut his mind is stupid

I always try to stress to MAGA supporters that I know that Trump isn't a smart guy and that he is a legit horrible person. To me it's not even political. The guy is just moronic and has no idea about how anything works.

[XorXor]

20. Man, Trump really has brought the Republican party to an extreme low

Whatever we may oppose and think about the Bushes, Reagan, and other previous Republicans, I don't think this would have been accepted back in the 2000s or 1990s.

It's shocking how so many go along with this.

[IronLionZion]

32. Republicans encouraged immigration back then

Nixon selected Spiro Agnew (originally Anagnostopoulos) for VP partly because his parents were Greek immigrants.

[JustAnotherGen]

24. Meh

She gets no sympathy from me.

[FakeNoose]

25. Well see ... Chump isn't racist or a sexist. He mocks everyone equally

[Orrex]

26. Herr Drumpf said this?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

27. There you go

Drumpf was his grandfather's last name.

[niyad]

31. Der drumpfenfuhrer.

[GuppyGal]

42. If she was smart she'd go right back at him with this low hanging fruit...but she ain't so she don't LOL nt

[question everything]

33. Sadly, so do some DUers here

[cstanleytech]

34. Standard procedure by Trump really so not shocking at all.

[MistakenLamb]

35. Not surprised by the base that puts the emphasis on "Hussein" in Barack Obama's name

i said earlier this month the Trump GOP base will not elect a woman named Nimrata as President

[iluvtennis]

36. It's about race with tfg and his MAGAts. I'm sure his MAGAt base is eating this up - fkn racists. n/t

[Aussie105]

40. It's really difficult, isn't it?

I mean, pretending that America is populated by upright, God fearing descendants of Anglo-Saxon Europeans who fled to the USA to escape religious oppression.

Every second surname in America clearly shout 'not Anglo-Saxon!' and every second face carries the features of African, Asian, non Anglo-Saxon European and South American descendancy.

Yep, really hard to keep the purity thing going.
But Trumpy boy is doing his best, pointing out 'foreign' names like they should be illegal, and telling us 'Immigrants dilute the blood'.

My response is simple, Trumpy Boy - Your country was built my Immigrants!
Die already, you (rude words left unsaid)!!!!

[womanofthehills]

41. Someone on a podcast today said Trump is the most talked about person in the whole world

Its probably true. I hate to spend my waking moments having to think about him as I'm doing right now.