Bailing On "Birdbrain"
Billionaire Reid Hoffman does not plan to give any more money to Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign after her loss in the New Hampshire Republican primary, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Hoffman is one of Haley’s first wealthy donors to start heading for the exit after she said Tuesday that she will remain in the GOP’s nomination contests against former President Donald Trump despite failing to beat him in New Hampshire or in the Iowa caucuses.
The person who told CNBC that Hoffman didn’t have immediate plans to help Haley again declined to be named in order to speak freely about the matter.
This is another factor that suggests to me that Democrats wanted to support a candidate who could take Trump out of the running in the primaries but would be easier to beat in the general election. Now that the outcome appears less and less likely, they're putting their money elsewhere. The lack of enthusiasm for Haley extends to Republican donors as well, according to the same CNBC link:
A Republican fundraiser told CNBC on Wednesday that three clients who each helped Haley raise up to $100,000 for her campaign are now opting out of further financial efforts for the former United Nations ambassador.
Other fundraisers said Wednesday said that while they plan to speak out publicly in support of Haley, they are not convinced that they will be able to raise much money for her campaign because of her 0-for-2 record so far.
Meanwhile, Trump as irreverent entertainer has returned, with a new nickname for Haley:
"Nikki 'Birdbrain' Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country. Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Her anger should be aimed at her Third Rate Political Consultants and, more importantly, Crooked Joe Biden and those that are destroying our Country - NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL SAVE IT."
Like many of his previous nicknames such as "Low Energy Jeb", this one looks likely to home in on its target with devastating effect, but it's worth noting that Trump didn't deploy it until she refused to withdraw from the race following her defeat. David Axelrod's reaction even before Trump called her "Birdbrain" is an indication of how much Democrat strategists actually fear him as an opponent in the general:
Democratic strategist David Axelrod denounced former President Trump’s New Hampshire victory speech Wednesday, calling it “improvisational” and saying the former president acted like a “jackass.”
Trump’s rambling victory monologue after a strong performance in the Granite State included repeated jabs at his chief rival, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, including mocking her own concession speech earlier in the evening and making fun of her dress.
. . . The strategist said in a CNN interview Wednesday that the Trump campaign isn’t able to contain its candidate.
“I guarantee you that they did not say, ‘Go on out there and act like a jackass and go after Nikki Haley in really personal and sexist ways, humiliate Tim Scott,’” Axelrod said. “That was the improvisational Trump.”
As I've been sayling, Trump's appeal is in his irrepressibility, something Axelrod implicitly acknowledges here. At the same time, both Democrats and NeverTrumpers seem to have become resigned to rhe fact that Haley is neither a credible alternative to Trump for the nomination nor a potentially beatable candidate in November, and both groups have begun to bail.