Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley is reportedly going after both the front-runner for her party’s nomination Donald Trump and President Joe Biden in her latest attack ads, capitalising on the lack of appetite for a rematch of the 2020 contest among the American electorate by characterising the 77 and 81-year-olds as reclusive, stingy and out of touch “grumpy old men”.
Ms Haley has come out swinging against Mr Trump since losing the New Hampshire primary last week, concentrating her campaigning efforts on her native South Carolina and warning voters in a Newsmax interview that he cannot win over suburban women and independent voters, which could stop him beating Mr Biden in November.
While Mr Trump has been preoccupied by his legal troubles since his win in New Hampshire, his rival has attempted to pitch herself as a Tea Party original in an explicit appeal to his hard-right base.
“Trump says I’m not conservative. That makes me laugh,” she wrote on X last week.
“I’m a Tea Party governor. I took on the establishment in South Carolina. That’s why they didn’t like me very much. But I don’t care if the swamp likes me. I’m fighting for YOU.”