The former president won an easy victory Tuesday night - but you would have never known it to listen to him address his followers

NASHUA, N.H. — Donald Trump scheduled his New Hampshire victory speech at a castle fit for a king but he was too angry to enjoy his own coronation.

The former president railed against Nikki Haley, claimed Democrats used the pandemic to cheat in the 2020 election and rehashed the Iowa caucuses that he won by double digits a week ago during his New Hampshire primary party on Tuesday night. Trump trained most of his fire on Haley, despite having just beaten her by 9 percentage points in his quest to return to the White House.

“I don’t get too angry, I get even,” Trump said from a Sheraton hotel in Nashua, flanked by his former Republican primary rivals who have endorsed him.

Trump painted Haley’s better-than-expected primary night performance as doing “very poorly.” Pre-primary polls had shown Trump with 60% of support in New Hampshire and beating the former South Carolina governor by as much as 19 percentage points.

Although his margin of victory was large enough that the race was called shortly after polls closed, it was small enough that Haley pledged to stay in the race.

“Who the hell was the imposter that went up on the stage before and, like, claimed victory? She did very poorly, actually. She had to win. The governor said she’s gonna win, she’s gonna win, she’s gonna win. Then she failed badly,” Trump said, a reference to Haley’s top New Hampshire backer Gov. Chris Sununu.

Seth Meyers Predicts Nikki Haley Will Endorse Donald Trump: Watch
Nikki Haley on New Hampshire Primary Day: ‘It’s Amazing to Get the First Six Votes’
Can Haley Stop the Trump Train? 5 Things to Watch on New Hampshire Primary Night
Poll: Nikki Haley Gaining on Trump in New Hampshire
New Hampshire Gov. Sununu Praises Haley in New Ad Ahead of Primary
Trump PAC Prepares Attack on Nikki Haley in New Hampshire With Ad Campaign

Later in the 20-minute speech, Trump set his sights on Haley’s home state of South Carolina, where the pair will face off in the Feb. 24 primary. The former president flaunted his recent endorsement from South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Haley appointed Scott to the Senate in 2013, which Trump pointed out.

“You must really hate her,” Trump said.

Scott took a beat and then replied: “I just love you.”

“That’s why he's a great politician,” Trump said.

Trump Dares Nikki Haley To Ace Same Cognitive Test as Him — Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Trump’s medieval backdrop, a hotel with an entrance between two stone towers topped with battlements, went straight to the heart of Haley’s closing argument in New Hampshire this week.

“We don’t believe in coronations in this country. We believe in democracy,” a defiant Haley had said just a day before the polls opened. “I’m in this for the long haul. This is a marathon. It’s not a sprint.”

But if Haley really is running a marathon and plans to keep her campaign going, the road ahead is rough terrain. Haley is on pace to lose by a larger margin in her home state of South Carolina next month, the latest polls show. She’s not even competing in the Nevada caucus in early February, ceding the delegates to Trump and appearing on the largely symbolic primary ballot instead.

That didn’t stop Trump and his allies from hammering Haley and demanding she drop out of the race immediately.

“The only person more angry than, let’s say, me - but I don’t get too angry, I get even - is Vivek,” Trump said.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old businessman who dropped out of the race in Iowa and immediately endorsed Trump, took the microphone to declare Haley continuing her campaign epitomizes the “ugly underbelly of American politics.”

Trump chalked up the 91 criminal charges he faces to a political conspiracy and said that his opponents would face investigations if they were elected, too.

“Just a little note to Nikki. She’s not gonna win. She’s not gonna win. But if she did, she would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes and I could tell you five reasons why already. Not big reasons, a little stuff she doesn’t want to talk about,” Trump said.

Despite his allies claiming the primary is "over," Trump hardly mentioned President Joe Biden on stage in Nashua. He did take a moment to retread the 2020 election, though. Trump was indicted for his alleged role in trying to overturn the results four years ago.

“We got millions and millions of more votes the second time,” Trump said, repeating a false claim that he won the 2020 election. “But we had COVID and they used COVID to cheat. And they did a lot of other things, too. We’re not gonna let that happen. And that’s still going along. You can never forget history because if you forget, you never recover from it and you repeat. We’re not gonna repeat.”

Home

Donald Trump’s Victory Speech Turns Into Rant Against Haley