Ex-president follows up his Iowa win with victory over Nikki Haley – and makes threats against his last Republican primary rival

The cruelty is the point.

As Joe Biden acknowledged on Tuesday night, Donald Trump now has the Republican presidential nomination sewn up. But like a Roman emperor or mob boss, Trump used his victory speech in New Hampshire to humiliate his former opponents – and make sinister threats against his last primary rival.

The former US president had followed up his record win in the Iowa caucuses with victory over Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the UN, with a double-digit triumph in less favourable political territory. As Republican politicians and donors scramble to jump aboard the Trump train, it is clearly game over for the Never Trumpers.

Trump could have been magnanimous in victory and congratulated Haley on a race well run. Instead, he was palpably irked by her refusal to drop out of the race. Petty and vindictive, he became a playground bully punching down for the benefit of an audience that glories in metaphorical violence.

  • @KISSmyOS@feddit.de
    55•5 months ago

    Then there was Senator Tim Scott, another ex-rival who has already debased himself with a fawning endorsement of Trump. With his unerring ability to get under people’s skin, [Trump] said to Scott that, since former South Carolina governor Haley appointed him to the Senate, “You must really hate her.”

    There was an awkward silence in the room and a rare grunt of dissent from someone. To rescue the situation, Scott stepped forward to the lectern, looked at Trump and grovelled: “I just love you!” The crowd exhaled in relief.

    WTF?

      • @nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1•5 months ago

        You need a functioning short term memory, and the capacity for self-reflection for that.

        The only things keeping him up at night are probably an enlarged prostate, or constipation/diarrhea from all the fast food.