Trump mocks Haley’s first name, Nimarata

ATLANTA — Donald Trump used his social media platform Friday to mock Nikki Haley‘s birth name, the latest example of the former president using race and ethnicity to attack people of color, especially his political rivals.

In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Nimbra.” Haley, the former South Carolina governor, was born in Bamberg, S.C., as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has always gone by her middle name, “Nikki.” She took the surname “Haley” upon her marriage in 1996.

Trump, himself the son, grandson and twice the husband of immigrants, called Haley “Nimbra” three times in the post and said she “doesn’t have what it takes.”

The attack came four days before the New Hampshire primary, in which Haley is trying to establish herself as the only viable Trump alternative in the Republicans’ 2024 nominating contest.

Trump’s post was an escalation of recent attacks in which he referenced Haley’s given first name — though he’s misspelled it “Nimrada” — and falsely asserted she is ineligible for the presidency because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born in 1972.

The attacks echo Trump’s “birther” rhetoric against former President Barack Obama. Trump spent years pushing the conspiracy theory the nation’s first Black president was born in Kenya and not a “natural born” U.S. citizen as required by the Constitution.

Haley has dismissed Trump’s latest attacks as proof that she threatens his bid for a third consecutive nomination.

“I’ll let people decide what he means by his attacks,” Haley told reporters in New Hampshire on Friday when asked about Trump’s false assertions her heritage disqualifies her from the Oval Office. “What we know is, look, he’s clearly insecure if he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he’s spending millions of dollars on TV.”

Trump’s campaign did not immediately reply to an inquiry about his comments.

Since Monday’s Iowa caucuses — which Trump won by 30 points over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who placed second — Haley has aimed to portray the rest of the GOP primary battle as a two-way race between Trump and herself despite her narrow third-place finish. Haley’s campaign is aiming for a stronger showing in New Hampshire, hoping for a springboard into her home-state South Carolina, which holds the South’s first presidential primary next month.

Trump also criticizes his other remaining rival, DeSantis, but his preferred pejoratives for the Florida governor, “Ron DeSanctimonious” or “Ron DeSanctus,” has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. DeSantis is white.