Former President Trump’s campaign on Wednesday swiped at his fellow Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s loss in the Nevada primary to “none of these candidates,” calling it a “humiliating, embarrassing, and utterly overwhelming defeat.”
Haley had no opposition on the primary ballot, except for the option of “none of these candidates” and candidates who already dropped out. Trump instead will participate in the state’s caucuses on Thursday due to a conflict between the state government and the Nevada GOP.
“It has been a while since the political world was treated to such a humiliating, embarrassing, and utterly overwhelming defeat than Nikki Haley suffered yesterday in Nevada,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote in a statement. “Birdbrain was crushed by ‘none of these candidates’ by over a 2-1 margin, which led to some devastating headlines mocking her ridiculous campaign.”
Trump and his reelection campaign have called Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, “birdbrain” numerous times on the campaign trail. Haley last year claimed the Trump campaign sent a birdcage and bird food to her hotel room as a nod to the nickname.
Cheung then linked a series of news report headlines that included phrases such as “embarrassed,” “Nevada says no to Nikki Haley” and “Worse than you can imagine.”
“Brutal. And if all that wasn’t enough, the Haley campaign admitted they intentionally disrespected the people of Nevada by not campaigning in the state because they didn’t think Nevadans were worth their time and energy,” Cheung wrote.
Trump also seized on Haley’s loss in the Silver State earlier Wednesday, writing in a Truth Social post, “A bad night for Nikki Haley. Losing by almost 30 points in Nevada to ‘None of These Candidates.’”
“Watch, she’ll soon claim Victory!” he added, in reference to Haley’s primary concession speech in New Hampshire last month when she claimed a minor win in overperforming expectations despite an 11-point defeat.
Haley’s campaign has its eyes on her home state of South Carolina, which will hold its primary later this month. The former South Carolina governor, however, is trailing Trump by about 30.8 points in the state, according to a polling index maintained by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ.
On a national scale, Trump leads Haley by an estimated 57.4 points, per The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling aggregation.