Opinion
Donald Trump is facing accusations of racism for using the birth name of his presidential competitor, Nikki Haley. The former president made use of his social media platform on Friday to address his former United Nations ambassador’s legal name. The Associated Press called this “the latest example of the former president keying on race and ethnicity to attack people of color, especially his political rivals.”
If you expected the media to have learned any lessons from the past several years, you are sure to be disappointed.
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‘Nimrada’
While Trump misspelled Haley’s name as “Nimrada,” her birth name is Nimrata Nikki Haley. The media pursued a similar approach when Barack Obama was running for President, alleging that the use of his real middle name, Hussein, was “racist.” He also misspelled her name as “Nimbra.”
The AP swiftly pointed out Trump is the son of immigrants, which the media believes to be an advantage in their favor.
Trump called Haley “Nimbra” three times in his post and said she “doesn’t have what it takes.” These attacks come four days before the New Hampshire primary, where Haley is attempting to establish herself as the leading Trump alternative in the 2024 Republican nominating contest. Trump’s post was an escalation of recent attacks in which he referred to Haley’s given first name, although he misspelled it as “Nimrada,” and made false claims about her eligibility for the presidency due to her parents’ citizenship status at the time of her birth in 1972.
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Is Trump Actually Being Racist?
Is Trump really using racist dog whistles? Or are too many just automatically assuming that’s what he’s doing? The AP contends, “The attacks echo Trump’s ‘birther’ rhetoric against President Barack Obama. Trump spent years pushing the conspiracy theory that the nation’s first Black president was born in Kenya and not a ‘natural born’ U.S. citizen as required by the Constitution.” Haley has brushed off Trump’s latest attacks as evidence that she threatens his bid for a third consecutive nomination.
Haley’s greatest opportunity to be competitive is probably in New Hampshire and her home state of South Carolina, where she still lags behind in the polls. With Trump holding a significant lead in the polls, does he really need to resort to racist tactics? Is that genuinely what’s going on here? Apparently, the mainstream press is going to presume that’s what he’s doing regardless.
