Trump Trolls Challengers at Debate, Torches Nikki Haley as ‘Bird Brain’

Former President Donald Trump trolled his Republican primary challengers while they sparred at a debate in Miami, Florida, and he held a dueling rally Wednesday night. 

Trump, who has held a majority of support in polls for months, touted his poll numbers in the primary field and nationally at the event in Hialeah, Florida, just north of Miami’s debate.

“You have about what seven or eight candidates left? And I think they’re at a debate tonight, nobody’s talking about it,” Trump said before taking a swipe at his former Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, calling her “Bird Brain.” 

"So it’s 61% for your favorite president — me — and 10% for Ron DeSanctimonious, and 7% for 'Birdbrain,'" Donald Trump touts his lead over Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. pic.twitter.com/gZ1lP8CgZd

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) November 9, 2023

“You know, Bird Brain. ‘I will never run against him. He is a great president. I will never ever run against him,’ said Bird Brain. ‘I will not run against him,’” Trump told the crowd. 

“And then about three months later, she goes, ‘I’ve decided to run.’ This is the craziest business politics,” he added. 

The 45th president seemed to be referencing Haley’s exchange with a news reporter in April 2021, where Haley said she would back Trump if he ran in 2024 and that she would not run against him. 

“I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” Haley said. “That’s something I would talk to him about at some point if the decision had to be made. I had a great working relationship with him.”

Trump used the nickname in September, and Haley found a bird cage and bird food outside of her hotel room in Iowa the next day courtesy of the Trump campaign, the Hill reported.

The 45th president on Wednesday went on to call for the “Republican establishment to stop wasting time and resources trying to push weak and ineffective RINOs [Republicans in name only] and Never Trumpers that nobody wanted and nobody’s gonna vote for.” 

“Coming in, I had this thing, and I was watching these guys. They’re not watchable,” Trump said of his opponents. “You know, the last debate was the lowest-rated debate in the history of politics.”

“Somebody said — one of those dumber ones, ‘He doesn’t have the courage to stand up.’ Well, listen, I’m standing in front of tens of thousands of people right now, and it’s on television. It’s a hell of a lot harder to do than a debate.”