Former President Trump said Tuesday that he’s indifferent about whether former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley stays in the race beyond the New Hampshire primary after her campaign signaled it planned to compete for weeks to come.
“No I don’t care if she stays in,” Trump said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. “Let her do whatever she wants. It doesn’t matter.”
Trump is expected to beat Haley in New Hampshire on Tuesday, and Haley is not competing in the Nevada caucuses, opting instead to run in the state’s primary, which will not factor into delegate allocation.
The former president is also leading Haley by a wide margin in her home state of South Carolina, leading to speculation about whether Haley, the Palmetto State’s former governor, would drop out if she loses in New Hampshire.
Haley is Trump’s lone remaining primary challenger after the rest of the field dropped out, with most of them endorsing Trump.
But her campaign signaled earlier Tuesday it did not intend to exit the race anytime soon.
“The political class and the media want to give Donald Trump a coronation. They say the race is over,” Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, wrote in a memo.
“That isn’t how this works,” Ankney said. “And while members of Congress, the press, and many of the weak-kneed fellas who ran for president are giving up and giving in — we aren’t going anywhere.”