For weeks, Trump’s campaign has treated Haley as a serious threat in New Hampshire — and the candidate himself made that clear starting Tuesday with a series of attacks on social media and at a rally in the state.

He went after Haley while referring to her first name, Nimarata, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social (though he misspelled Nimarata as Nimrada). Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa and took her husband’s last name after they married.

Trump also recently amplified a post that falsely claimed Haley was ineligible to run for president because her parents were not United States citizens at the time of her birth. Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, and is a US citizen.

The attacks echo Trump’s smears against former President Barack Obama. Trump was a chief promoter of the racist lie that Obama was not born in the US and was ineligible to be president. Trump also regularly emphasizes Obama’s middle name, Hussein, at campaign rallies. 

 The post includes Clinton’s 2016 campaign logo — a blue “H” and red arrow — but spells out “Haley” instead of “Hillary.”

The attacks on Haley are a dramatic departure from Trump’s Monday night victory speech in Iowa, where he called Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “very smart, very capable people.”

But the actions mirror the efforts of his campaign, which weeks ago homed in on Haley in New Hampshire.

Since the start of 2023, Haley and her allies have spent nearly $28.6 million on advertising in New Hampshire, while Trump and his allies have spent about $14.4 million on advertising there. But in recent weeks, the gap between Haley and Trump’s advertising has narrowed. Since the start of the new year, Haley and her allies have combined to spend about $9 million in New Hampshire, while Trump and his allies have spent about $8.5 million.

Those ads have attacked Haley on immigration, something Trump’s team views as a top issue for Republicans in New Hampshire.