Trump falsely claims he beat Haley in every GOP primary

Former President Trump falsely asserted Tuesday that he beat former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in every GOP presidential primary this cycle, despite Haley beating him in two races earlier this year.

When asked in an interview on Newsmax about the prospect of picking Haley as his running mate, Trump initially sidestepped the question, instead falsely touting a perfect record in this year’s primary voting contests.

“As far as Nikki is concerned, I was very disappointed in her because she stayed too long. And remember, I beat her in her own state. I beat her very badly everywhere,” Trump said Tuesday in the interview, highlighted by Mediaite. “You know, I set records in the primaries. People don’t, you know, wanna talk about it, but if it was somebody else other than me, they’d say, ‘Wow, what a job.'”

“We won every primary in a record. We beat her in her state, South Carolina, — where she was governor — by record numbers. If you look at the kind of numbers we got, they’re incredible,” he added.

Trump did beat Haley in her home state by nearly 20 points, she came out on top in Washington, D.C., where she beat the former president by a whopping 29 points, and in Vermont, by 5 points.

The remarks drew comparison to Trump’s repeated false claims about the 2020 election that continue to reverberate through some factions of the GOP. He faces two criminal cases over his alleged attempts to overturn President Biden’s win.

Haley, who dropped out of the GOP presidential primary in March after a series of disappointing losses, has still received tens of thousands of primary votes over the last several months. In a few states, she has even approached or surpassed 20 percent of the vote, with political observers suggesting these numbers underscore apparent frustrations Republicans have with Trump as their party’s presumptive nominee.

After weeks of speculation, Haley recently said she will vote for Trump over Biden this fall, citing the need border security, capitalism, freedom and debt reduction.

Last month, Trump said Haley is “not under consideration” for his vice president pick, but that he wishes “her well.” He did, however, suggest she could be on his team “in some form” if reelected.

The Hill reached out to Haley’s spokesperson for further comment.

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