‘These people know what they’re doing’: Why Trump is attacking Haley in NH

Donald Trump may be up by 20 percentage points in New Hampshire, but he and his team have moved swiftly to cut down any opponent they see rising.

That was on display this week, when they unloaded a new ad in New Hampshire whacking Nikki Haley on immigration.

It underscored Haley’s ascendance in the race. But it said a lot about Trump, too.

Having largely eschewed the nuts and bolts of campaigning during his first two runs for the White House, he is leaving nothing to chance this go around.

But Trump and his aides also face a unique problem, one that is now falling plainly into view. Expectations for a romp are sky high and Trump himself has set them there. On the cusp of the Iowa caucuses and, shortly after, the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, Haley doesn’t have to beat Trump in either state to wound him. She can inflict damage simply by beating his high bar.

“Trump is out there saying, ‘Listen, I’m 70 points up here, I’m 60 points up here. He’s setting this up, and this has always been his M.O. — of winning, of inevitability,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who is unaffiliated in the race but was in New Hampshire watching Haley on Wednesday when news of the new ad came down. “That is a very dangerous thing when it comes to politics.”

The odds of Haley, the former South Carolina governor, or Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, or anyone else blocking Trump’s path to the nomination are exceedingly dim. The former president is polling above 60 percent nationally in the GOP primary, and there isn’t a single early nominating state in which he isn’t far ahead. The primary has felt at times more like a sleepwalk than a campaign.

But political campaigns don’t air attack ads without a reason. That’s