Mocking Haley, Trump Adds to His Long History of Racist Attacks

During his first campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, Donald J. Trump slid into a booth inside the iconic Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, N.H., and signed autographs when a woman yelled at him and stormed out of the eatery.

“Enjoy your burger, racist!” she shouted, as the soon-to-be-president betrayed no reaction.

Mr. Trump has never returned to the diner. But during the 2024 campaign he has continued to pile up accusations of racism on the campaign trail.

Mr. Trump first established his connection with the largely white Republican base more than a decade ago by stoking discomfort with the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president — the beginning of the so-called birther movement.

This week, Mr. Trump lobbed his latest racially charged attack at former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, the daughter of Indian immigrants and his closest competitor in the New Hampshire primary, by repeatedly flubbing her given name, Nimarata Nikki Randhawa.

On Friday, Mr. Trump referred to Ms. Haley as “Nimbra” in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, three days after facing criticism for dubbing her “Nimrada.” Ms. Haley has long gone by her middle name, Nikki.

Both are racist dog whistles, much like his continued focus on Mr. Obama’s middle name, Hussein, and add to a long history of racially incendiary statements from the campaign trail.

Ms. Haley told reporters on Friday that Mr. Trump’s attacks revealed his own insecurities about the presidential contest.

“If he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he’s going and spending millions of dollars on TV, he’s insecure — he knows that something’s wrong,” she said. “I don’t sit there and worry about whether it’s personal or what he means.”

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