© Reuters. Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a marketing campaign rally forward of the Republican caucus in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 27, 2024. REUTERS/Ronda Churchill
By Tim Reid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump on Saturday stated he feels “sharper now than I did 20 years in the past,” reacting to current assaults on his age and verbal gaffes by Republican presidential rival Nikki Haley.
Trump additionally stated presidential candidates ought to should take a cognitive take a look at, apparently a response to a problem from Haley, who has advocated the identical coverage, citing the age of Trump, 77, and Democratic President Joe Biden, 81.
Trump was talking at a rally in Nevada, forward of the following vote within the Republican presidential nominating race, a caucus within the state on Feb. 8. In current days Haley has accused former Republican President Trump of being confused and has questioned his potential to be president at his age.
Trump has just lately made some verbal slip-ups. Throughout a speech on Jan. 19 he confused Haley with former Democratic Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi. From time to time he has appeared to slur his phrases and he additionally instructed former Democratic President Barack Obama was nonetheless in workplace.
Trump is sort of assured of all of Nevada’s 26 delegates as a result of Haley shouldn’t be competing within the caucus. He attacked each Haley and Biden, making an attempt to knock Haley out of the Republican nominating battle whereas scoring early factors in a probable basic election rematch with Biden in November.
Trump’s back-to-back wins within the Iowa and New Hampshire Republican contests have all however assured him his occasion’s White Home nomination. However he’s infuriated that Haley, his final remaining Republican rival, has refused to drop out.
Trump and his allies have begun a marketing campaign to power Haley out of the race earlier than the following main vote within the major race, in her residence state of South Carolina on Feb. 24. Trump has threatened to banish from his political orbit any donors who proceed to fund Haley.
Haley has pledged to maintain campaigning in South Carolina and past.
Shortly after Trump’s speech, Haley appeared at a rally in South Carolina. She once more stated Trump had just lately appeared “confused”, and stated if he needs to take a cognitive take a look at, “he shouldn’t have any downside getting on a debate stage with me, as a result of that is the last word psychological competency take a look at for anybody working for president.”
Trump has refused to take part in any of the Republican nominating debates and is refusing to debate Haley.
In his Nevada speech, Trump repeated a demeaning nickname for Haley, calling her “birdbrain”. He additionally accused Haley – a conservative Republican – of being “virtually a radical left Democrat”.
Trump declared: “It is time to end this,” referring to his nomination battle. He leads Haley in opinion polls in South Carolina and she or he has no clear path to the nomination.
After Trump’s win within the New Hampshire major on Jan. 23, the Biden marketing campaign issued an announcement, saying: “It’s now clear that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee.”
Turning his consideration to Biden, Trump centered a lot of his speech on the southern border.
Document numbers of migrants have been caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since Biden took workplace in 2021, and opinion polls present immigration and the border as a prime problem on this yr’s basic election.
Trump referred to as the unlawful crossing a “disaster”, an “invasion” and the southern border as an “open wound”.
In the meantime, Biden and his marketing campaign aides have intensified assaults on Trump in current days, calling him a menace to U.S. democracy and tying him to the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s 2022 determination to finish federal abortion rights, a problem that has been blamed with hurting Republicans in the course of the 2022 midterm elections.