Heading into Tuesday’s New Hampshire major, Donald Trump is making an aggressive play to lock up the Republican nomination by pressuring Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to drop out. In response to sources, Trump has been calling DeSantis and Haley allies to make the case that the race is over. Trump is pulling 50% of doubtless New Hampshire Republican major voters, in keeping with a Boston Globe/Suffolk College/NBC10 poll launched this week, whereas Haley trails at 34% and DeSantis clocks in at simply 5%. “The plan is to again all of the donors and Fox off [the other candidates] and shut it out by subsequent Wednesday,” a Republican near Trump advised me.
Trump is following a carrot-and-stick technique to get Haley and DeSantis to drop out of the race, sources briefed on the Trump marketing campaign’s considering advised me. On Monday night time, Trump uncharacteristically prolonged an olive department to his rivals throughout his victory speech after crushing them within the Iowa caucuses. “We’re gonna come collectively. It’s gonna occur quickly too. It’s gonna occur quickly,” he advised supporters in Des Moines.
In the meantime, Trump has been racking up endorsements, lending his victory an air of inevitability. Ted Cruz this week became the twenty fifth Republican senator to endorse Trump, following on the heels of one other onetime rival, Marco Rubio. “Congratulations to President Trump on that dominating victory. And at this level, I imagine this race is over,” Cruz advised Fox Information’ Sean Hannity. Behind the scenes, Trump has been on a attraction offensive to extend his help. In response to a number of sources, Trump has been calling South Carolina senator Tim Scott, looking for his endorsement earlier than the February 24 major in Haley’s residence state. (The New York Instances additionally reported Thursday on Trump’s efforts to domesticate Scott.) “[Trump] talks to Scott pretty commonly, and we hope there may be an endorsement earlier than South Carolina,” a Trump adviser mentioned. A Scott spokesperson didn’t instantly remark.
Trump is making an attempt to rapidly put the nomination away whereas navigating treacherous authorized waters, appearing in a New York courtroom on Wednesday for a defamation lawsuit earlier than holding a New Hampshire rally that night time. (Trump can also be contending with 4 legal instances, together with two over 2020 election subversion, that ought to play out amid the 2024 election.) On Friday, Trump will campaign in New Hampshire alongside New York consultant Elise Stefanik, a VP contender who this week known as on “each different candidate—all of whom don’t have any likelihood to win—to drop out.”
In fact, Trump being Trump, he’s prepared to go scorched-earth himself on Haley and DeSantis. On Tuesday, he attacked Haley in extremely private phrases on his social media platform, Reality Social, by misspelling her delivery title, Nimarata: “Anybody listening to Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley’s wacked out speech final night time, would assume that she gained the Iowa Main. She didn’t, and he or she couldn’t even beat a really flawed Ron DeSanctimonious, who’s out of cash, and out of hope.”