Former President Donald Trump ridiculed his Republican rival Nikki Haley on Saturday, pointing out that his speech to MAGA worshipers was delivered to a half-empty room at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“Congrats to Nikki Haley for drawing such a big crowd to CPAC,” he posted on TruthSocial with a photo of empty rows. ‘As I told her, “Nikki, follow your heart!”‘
CPAC regulars say the event has lacked energy this year, with some key figures staying away in an “off-year” election cycle.
Haley was one of many contenders who risked standing in front of a hostile audience, and even took the opportunity to repeat her 75-plus call for applications to face a mental capacity test.
Trump is 76 years old.
By contrast, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stayed away from an audience of Trump loyalists.
There were plenty of empty seats on the second full day of CPAC on Friday
Nikki Haley declared the Democratic Party now ‘socialist’ and said the ‘wake-up call’ was more dangerous than any public health crisis in a speech on Friday
This earned Haley kudos from some Trump lieutenants.
“Yes, @CPAC, like the GOP as a whole, is dominated by Donald Trump,” said Taylor Budowich, who leads super PAC MAGA Inc. “It’s not easy to show up and stand in this shadow , but you can’t compete if you don’t show up.
“Accessories to those like Nikki, Pompeo, Vivek, etc. who were brave enough to come forward and compete.”
He tweeted it along with a video of Haley leaving her speech as Trump supporters chanted.
In her speech, Haley said the Democratic Party is now “socialist” and said the “wake-up call” was more dangerous than any public health crisis in a speech on Friday.
“The Democratic Party is now a socialist party. Bernie Sanders and AOC are at least honest about it,’ he told a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “Socialism is weakening our country at the worst possible time.”
And after a coronavirus pandemic killed 1.13 million Americans, Haley said “revival is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic – hands down.”
The former United Nations ambassador and governor of South Carolina called China “the strongest and most disciplined enemy we have ever faced”.
“I can’t believe what Joe Biden is letting China do,” she said. “Never in my life would I have thought that Americans would look up into the sky and see a Chinese spy balloon staring down at us.”
“Chinese companies now own over 380,000 acres of American soil, including a portion right next to our military bases,” Haley continued. ‘What are we doing? We should never let an enemy buy land in our country.
The Republican presidential candidate claimed that President Biden was asking US troops to take “gender pronoun classes” rather than combat training.
“A strong army does not start wars. A strong army prevents wars,” she said. “I will bring the same strength to the White House that I brought to the United Nations.”
Haley touted his work at the UN compiling a list of nations and checking how often they voted with the United States and how much aid the United States gave them.
“They stab us in the back and then turn around, hands outstretched, wanting our money,” she said. “To this day, we provide foreign aid to Pakistan, Iraq, the Palestinians and even communist Cuba and China.”
“We need to stop trying to buy friends. All we do is pay enemies. When I’m president, we’ll stop giving money to countries that hate America!
“Never in my life would I have thought that Americans would look up at the sky and see a Chinese spy balloon staring at us,” Haley said.
After calling for mental capacity tests and term limits, Haley hit out at both Biden and congressional Republicans for adding to the national debt after Republicans rolled back appropriations last year.
‘[Biden] put us on track to add another $20 trillion over the next 10 years. And by the way, some Republicans contributed to that,” she said. “We need to stop pet assignments and projects – once and for all! »
Haley entered the presidential race in mid-February, but is currently trailing far behind former President Trump – who has already launched a bid – and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has yet to do so.
According to an Emerson College poll released this week, Trump leads the pack in a hypothetical matchup by 55% of GOP primary/caucus voters and DeSantis trails him at 25%. Vice President Mike Pence is behind at 8% and Haley behind him at 5%.
