New 2024 Republican presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley mentioned former President Donald Trump by name only once in her campaign launch speech, to note that he nominated her for ambassador to the United Nations.
But Trump is at least partially implicated in some of Haley’s criticism of President Joe Biden, the man she would like to replace in the White House.
Indirect attacks on Trump through Biden could be the new strategy for Republicans in the primary, begun by the first candidate to join the former president in the race. Here are a few examples.
TRUMP MADE ONE BIG MISCALCULATION ABOUT THE FIELD IN THE 2024 GOP RACE
A new generation of leadership
Like Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) in her GOP rebuttal to the State of the Union, the 51-year-old Haley’s reference to generational change was clearly meant to target Biden. But it also applies to Trump.
“We won’t win the fight for the 21st century if we keep trusting politicians from the 20th century,” Haley said. Biden is a politician for the 20th century, when he spent most of his 36 years in the Senate, while Trump ran for office for the first time in 2016.
Nevertheless, Trump is clearly a 20th-century figure. He became a household name synonymous with glamour and wealth in the 1980s. That’s the period in which he first built his personal brand, though he magnified it further through 21st-century reality TV, social media, and politics. Trump even contemplated running for president in 1999 as a candidate for Ross Perot’s Reform Party.
Perot ran for president twice himself, losing to Bill Clinton both times. “Things have changed,” Mike McCurry, a former White House press secretary under Clinton, recently told the Washington Examiner. “My daughter reminds me often that my time there ‘was in the last century, Dad.’”
Tired of losing
This line barely pretends to hit Biden more than Trump. It was addressed “to my fellow Republicans” about their recent losses in the national popular vote, which included Trump’s election in 2016.
Trump also promised Republicans they would be “tired of winning” after he took office. Republicans then lost control of the House in 2018 and the Senate and White House in 2020 and were barely able to win the House while losing a seat in the Senate last year. Trump was a major factor in each of those elections, including losing his reelection bid to Biden.
“If you’re tired of losing, then put your trust in a new generation,” Haley said. “And if you want to win, not just as a party but as a country, then stand with me!”
Failed leaders in Washington
Haley launched an overt attack on the status quo in Washington, clearly aimed at Biden as the incumbent. But it indirectly hit another recent president.
“Look past the failed ideas and leaders in Washington — and find the courage to be part of the solution,” she said. And while channeling Trump’s message about culture, political correctness, and national pride, the former South Carolina governor differentiated herself in tone.
“Cast off the fear that our best days are behind us — and join the movement for our country’s renewal,” Haley said.
Mental competence tests for old politicians
Republicans have questioned Biden’s mental acuity as he became the first 80-year-old president. If reelected, he will turn 86 by the conclusion of his second term. Republicans will press for evidence he is mentally competent when the results of his physical exam are released this week.
“We’ll have term limits for Congress — and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old!” Haley said as she spoke of an America in which the “permanent politician will finally retire.”
Both are clearly shots at Biden, an octogenarian who arrived in Washington in 1973. But Trump is 76 and running for president for the third time.
Reality, not reality TV
“And when it comes to our politicians, we’ll light a fire under them,” Haley said. “Their job is not to say things on TV. Their job is to do things in D.C. — like solve problems instead of ignoring or creating them!”
Haley’s line about political pontificators pertained to speechmaking politicians ranging from Biden to former President Barack Obama. Biden could be said to be ignoring problems such as China and the border.
But Trump was the reality TV star who was elected as a freewheeling campaign rally showman. Many of his allies in Congress are ubiquitous on cable television and social media.
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Trump has been quick to turn on Republicans eyeing the race whom he had endorsed or employed, with often blistering personal attacks. Most of these Republicans will want to avoid responding in kind and keep the focus on Biden, the Democrat they hope to beat.
If they can make a few salient points about Trump in the process, however, they will.
