by Donald J. Trump first established his connection with the largely white Republican base more than a decade ago by stoking unrest with the election of Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, the beginning of the so-called Birther movement.
In the years since, he has continued to rack up accusations of racism during the election campaign. This week, Trump launched his latest racially charged attack on former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, the daughter of Indian immigrants and her closest competitor in the New Hampshire primary, by repeatedly changing her first name, Nimarata. Nikki Randhawa.
On Friday, Trump referred to Haley as “Nimbra” in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, three days after facing criticism for nicknamed her “Nimrada.” Ms. Haley has always used her middle name, Nikki.
Both are racist dog whistles, much like his continued focus on Obama’s middle name, Hussein, and add to a long history of racially inflammatory statements during the election campaign.
Haley told reporters Friday that Trump’s attacks revealed her own insecurities about the presidential race.
“If you throw these tantrums, if you spend millions of dollars on television, you feel insecure, you know something is wrong,” he said. “I don’t sit there and worry about whether it’s personal or what he wants to say.”
At a pro-Haley rally in Manchester on Friday, her supporters said they were glad the former governor was countering Trump’s accusations.
“This is a continuation of third-degree harassment and behavior that should punish you,” said Kathy Holland, 75, a retired business owner. “We deserve leaders who act like adults.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said those raising concerns about Trump’s handling of race were themselves guilty of “false outrage racism.”
“They should get a life and live in the real world,” Cheung said.
Trump’s history with the issue dates back to years before his formal entry into politics.
In February 2011, Trump began spreading the racist lie that Obama was not a U.S. citizen when he was testing the waters of a potential presidential campaign. Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, discussed the so-called birth issue almost every night in April, until Obama showed reporters his birth certificate later that month.
By then, a CNN poll showed Trump tied for first in a hypothetical primary. While Trump opted to return for another season of “The Celebrity Apprentice” as host of the reality TV show rather than run for president, he ran in 2016 on similar themes.
That year he questioned the citizenship of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the state’s first Latino senator, who was born in Canada. Mr. Cruz’s mother is American, which automatically conferred citizenship on him.
During his failed 2020 reelection bid, he falsely claimed that Kamala Harris, who would become the first woman and first person of color to be elected vice president, did not meet the country’s citizenship requirements.
This month, he returned to that familiar playbook by accusing Haley on social media of not being a real American eligible for the presidency, even as she defended her own legal eligibility for elections under the Constitution.
“I’ll let the president’s social media post speak for itself,” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said last week at an event hosted by Bloomberg News.
After Tuesday’s contest in New Hampshire, attention in the Republican primary will be focused primarily on South Carolina, Haley’s home state, which has its own history of racially charged politics.
In February 2000, after Senator John McCain won a comeback victory over George W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary, he was the target of a smear campaign in South Carolina. The attacks falsely claimed that McCain’s wife, Cindy, was a drug addict and that the couple’s daughter, Bridget, whom they adopted in Bangladesh, was the product of an illicit union.
“Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president,” some voters were asked in phone calls, “if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
