Pro-Trump trolls escalating attacks
Online posts target Haley, who refuses to drop out of race
Social media posts depicting her as Shiva, the deity of destruction. Others that misleadingly use deepfake technology to show her insulting voters. And still others that direct vitriol at her son, a college student.
For most of her presidential campaign, Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador, has been spared the full onslaught from former President Donald Trump’s devoted following of internet trolls. The cadre of mostly anonymous personalities who wage near-constant battle in Trump’s name focused first on brutally attacking Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who had been considered the former president’s most potent rival in the 2024 Republican primary.
But with Haley now his last remaining opponent, the machine has turned her way.
Online personalities have in recent weeks circulated vicious attacks through memes, posts and videos that often center on her race, gender and identity, including some that malign her for saying she was “teased for being brown” and others that falsely claim she is ineligible to serve as president because her parents were immigrants. Some of the most disturbing material has been generated by artificial intelligence and digitally manipulates her voice and likeness. Much of the content is rife with crude sexual innuendo.
Joan Donovan, a disinformation researcher and assistant professor of journalism at Boston University, said the threats and insults are indicative of the form of low politics and “network harassment” that Trump and his online admirers ushered in.
“These are people who see themselves as participants in Trump’s troll army,” Donovan said.
In an era when campaigns wage war online as well as off, not all the efforts have been confined to the internet.
Laura Loomer, an internet activist close to Trump who has lobbed personal attacks at Haley on social media, has also tried to ambush her at campaign events, shouting questions at her staff and surrogates and filming their responses. Alex Stein from BlazeTV has confronted some of Haley’s female volunteers.
For the better part of the election cycle, Trump staff members, his allies and MAGA fans online directed their energies at DeSantis, who was subjected to wave after wave of social media posts and videos depicting him, his wife, his staff and his surrogates in unflattering ways. The attacks against the governor focused on his masculinity, loyalty and competence, helped crater his poll numbers and deflated his image among Republican primary voters as a confident warrior for conservative causes.
The tide against Haley began soon after the Iowa caucuses.
At first, the content focused on her foreign policy stance, accusing her of being a “warmonger” and attacking some of her policy decisions as South Carolina’s governor. Although Haley mostly sought to stay above the fray, her son, Nalin, was willing to hit back at her rivals on social media platforms with his own memes and quips.
The tone of the attacks changed after The Daily Mail published a story Jan. 19 that dredged up old allegations that Haley had engaged in two extramarital affairs in 2008, two years before she was first elected governor. Haley has long denied the accusations, but the article prompted a blitz of content on X, formerly Twitter, and other social media platforms depicting her in sexualized ways.
The posts, often obscene and employing artificial intelligence to manipulate images or mimic Haley’s voice, did away with traditional political critique, trying instead to cast an opponent as someone with loose morals. Some posts were created by a team of internet trolls that calls itself Trump’s Online War Machine.
Karen Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman
Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University, said the content captured the combination of sexist and racist overtones meant to rob targets of authority and convert them into objects of ridicule. The type of harassment, she and other analysts said, can be particularly damaging for female candidates.
“It reduces women down to being sexual objects,” she said. That can open the door to more dangerous threats or physical violence, she added, pointing to how Haley has been a target of “swatting,” hoax emergency calls that have sent authorities scrambling to her door.
Haley has fired back at some of the attacks coming from Trump, albeit with mixed results. Her campaign, whose top staff members are women and which has a national coalition of highly active female volunteers, initially and gleefully pointed to the “birdbrain” insults as evidence that the Trump camp was worried about her momentum.
Lately, she has stepped up her criticism of the former president, blasting him as “unhinged” and a grumpy old man. Her attacks on Trump’s age and mental fitness have not always landed with some of her supporters, who have said they prefer her previous refusal to get personal.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, said on X that Haley would “drop down” and praise Trump once the South Carolina primary was over.
Olivia Perez-Cubas, Haley’s spokesperson, responded with a kissing emoji and “xoxo.”
Trump rolled to a primary victory Saturday, but Haley is still in the race.