With DeSantis gone, Haley must hit Trump hard in New Hampshire. Here are 5 ways to do it.

As GOP presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley prepares for Tuesday’s crucial vote in New Hampshire, she’s beginning to “attack” the front-runner, former president and indictment collector Donald Trump.

I put the word “attack” in quotes because what Haley is doing is the most timid version of an attack imaginable. Her flailing GOP competitor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the primary Sunday, so it's now effectively down to her and Trump. Yet she’s still trying to ward off a rabid grizzly bear who lacks impulse control with a down pillow and a finger wag.

Trump is, by any measure, the most easily attackable political candidate ever created. His multitudinous flaws have flaws, he’s facing 91 state and federal felony charges and he babbles vile rhetoric like a fascist random-word generator.

Nikki Haley knows Donald Trump is very easy to attack, right?

But Haley “ramping up” her attacks on Trump amounts to mentioning that he’s not young and occasionally noting that “chaos follows him.”

Really? That’s it?

It was easy to attack Trump long before he was president, back when he was just an over-glorified Manhattan realtor/lunkhead with a long history of grift and shady dealings. Now, attacking the former president on wildly substantive issues is easier than solving a one-piece jigsaw puzzle.

For a Republican candidate like Haley – an actual adult in political circles – all it would take to put up a fight against Trump is an ounce or two of courage. All she would have to do is speak the truth. Here are five ways she can do that – perhaps too little, too late – on the day before New Hampshire voters hit the polls.

1. Bring up the insurrection and all those indictments and whatnot

The primary line of attack against Trump is and always should be the fact that he’s in more legal peril than the average American could ever dream up.

A look at Trump on social media: Trump's nutty 'TOTAL IMMUNITY' post really means: 'PRESIDENTS CAN BREAK ALL LAWS!'

No matter how many times he screams “WITCH HUNT,” you have to put in work to get indicted as many times as Trump has been indicted. He’s credibly accused of election interference, falsifying business records, more than 30 counts of violating the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.

You hear the phrase “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” a lot these days. Haley should say, “That’s the biggest amount of smoke I’ve ever seen.”

And let’s not forget the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the fact that Trump continues to deny the results of the 2020 presidential election. I reckon campaign strategists daydream of having an opponent hand them that kind of material.

Haley should use it. President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign certainly will.

2. Note that a judge has declared Trump a rapist

The former president of the United States America is not “alleged” to have sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll. The judge in the case made clear that the jury in Carroll’s defamation case against Trump found that he raped her.

In a court filing in July, Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote: “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

Trump was in a Manhattan courtroom this past week behaving like an oaf before a jury tasked with determining what damages if any he should pay for defaming Carroll. He also posted dozens of things on his social media account blasting Carroll.

Haley should say, without equivocation, that a judge has said that Donald Trump is a rapist. And that Trump continues to defame and behave like a unrepentant jerk toward the victim.

3. Point out that Trump is back on his racist, birther nonsense

Recently, Trump shared a post on his Truth Social account falsely claiming Haley is ineligible for the presidency because her parents, immigrants from India, were not citizens when she was born. That’s hot garbage, and it echoes the notorious birther conspiracies Trump hurled at former President Barack Obama.

Haley is an American citizen, born in South Carolina in 1972, and is fully eligible to be president.

Trump has also started harping on Haley’s given first name, Nimarata. (She has gone by her middle name, Nikki, since birth.)

First he started using the incorrect spelling “Nimrata,” then that morphed into “Nimrada,” and on Friday morning he had again changed it to “Nimbra.”

Haley says US has never been 'racist.' Her own family history says otherwise.

This is all on-par with his attempts to “other-ize” Obama by loudly using his middle name, Hussein, at every mention.

Haley could use this to highlight Trump’s reflexive racism and juvenile mindset.

4. Read one Trump social media post out loud to voters

To remind New Hampshire voters just how unhinged and unstable Trump is, Haley should read aloud one of the former president’s posts from his social media account.

Here’s a perfect sample, from last Monday:

“Fox & Friends is giving DeSanctimonious & Haley one last shot. They are working hard, even using an old CNN Fake Poll, which shows I am only up on Birdbrain by 9 points in New Hampshire (all other polls say 20 to 25 points up!). Why are they using CNN polls? That’s why! Nikki is using an old poll to show she’s beating Crooked Joe. She’s not. Almost all new polls show she is being decimated by him. I am beating Crooked Joe, by a lot, in the polls. MAGA!”

Read that and then say: “You all sure you want four years of whatever the heck that is?”

5. Remind New Hampshire voters that Trump hates Americans who don't support him

Haley should point out that Trump said this month he hopes the U.S. economy collapses soon: “When there’s a crash, I hope it’s going to be during these next 12 months.”

She should also note that at a recent rally in Iowa, Trump suggested intimidation against Democratic voters and referred to them as “bags of crap.” He told his supporters: “You should all stay in those voting booths – you should stay there and watch it. If you see bags of crap coming into the voting areas, you gotta stop it, you can’t let it happen, 'cause these guys are crooked as hell.”

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

Haley could easily note that none of this is “America first,” as Trump likes to say. In fact, it’s decidedly un-American. It’s “Trump first,” everywhere and always.

It may be too late for Nikki Haley, but why not go down fighting?

Haley should have been hitting Trump hard from the jump. I doubt she’ll do so now, in the waning days before the New Hampshire vote. Republicans at large seem comfortable living sans spines.

But if she really wants to win, she should at least give it a try. Be honest with voters, Nikki Haley. Tell them the truth. You might find that people, even at the last minute, like candidates unafraid to take a stand.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Haley, it's easy to win New Hampshire vote. Just go hard at Trump