Opinion
Right before the Iowa Caucus on Monday, Donald Trump declared on Truth Social of Nikki Haley, “she doesn’t have MAGA, and never will” and therefore has no shot to win the general election.
The Haley campaign didn’t appear amused, and called Trump’s comments “fake news.”
RELATED: New Poll: Trump Can Beat Biden, But Nikki Haley Can’t
What Polls Are Team Haley Looking At?
Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said, “Now that Nikki is surging and Trump is dropping, his campaign is flinging phony, contradictory attacks.”
“Don’t believe the fake news from Trump world,” she added, “they don’t believe it themselves.”
If Team Haley thinks she is surging in national polls, a Rasmussen survey last week showed very much the opposite.
The poll reported, “Former President Donald Trump continues to lead President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also has a narrow edge over the incumbent, but Biden would beat former U.N. Secretary Nikki Haley.
“The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that if the 2024 election was between Biden and Trump, 49% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for Trump, while 41% would vote for Biden. Another eight percent (8%) would vote for some other candidate, but only two percent (2%) are undecided.”
Eight points is a huge lead for Trump on Biden. DeSantis barely edged Biden out by a point, 42%-41%.
But Nikki Haley would lose against Biden, with Rasmussen showing the current president having a two point lead, leads 38%-36%.
We don’t know which poll he was citing, but Trump questioned Haley’s logic on Monday after she did a Fox News interview.
RELATED: Trump Suggests That If He Becomes President Again, Joe Biden Could Be Indicted
Iowa Caucus
But those are national numbers.
We know a little bit more about the state of the race from last night’s Iowa Caucus, where Trump blew Haley out of the water.
The final results show President Trump taking a runaway 51% of the vote, with Haley in third place at 19%.
Perhaps it was Trump’s warning that got the ball rolling in Iowa:
“Nikki is a Globalist RINO, backed by American’s for Chinese Growth, the Charles Koch con job,” Trump wrote. “It’s not going to happen for her, or DeSanctimonious! Vivek Votes are wasted, should come to ‘TRUMP.’ MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Things are only going to get nastier. This is only the beginning.