There are two things that Haley and Biden should take advantage of: he is showing more and more signs of dementia and he wants to be a dictator.

Update: Biden campaign ‘cheered’ watching Trump’s furious rage speech against Nikki Haley: report

Politico’s Playbook reports that President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign “cheered” as Trump lashed out at his rival, as it reminded voters that Trump simply could not restrain himself — even in victory.

“That’s the guy we will beat,” one Biden aide texted to the publication.

Biden’s campaign wasn’t the only one happy to see him spend so much time attacking a defeated foe, as members of Haley’s campaign said that they were glad to see their candidate getting under his skin.

“For someone who’s not threatened by Nikki, he sure talks about her every chance he gets,” remarked one Haley aide.

It won’t hurt to replay this line from his New Hampshire victory speech:

Many of his supporters don’t care about Trump’s personality , but added to his aspiration to become a dictator hopefully enough of them will see he is not fit to be president.

If Biden handles this right he might convince enough of them that he isn’t the doddering demon Trump makes him out to be. Biden then can hit him with the classic one-two knockout punch shown on the top of this page. 

I wrote that Trump gave Haley a belated Christmas gift by confusing her with Nancy Pelosi a few days ago.

In fact this was a gift to Joe Biden too.

In his speech after being declared the winner of the New Hampshire primary Trump gave Haley and Biden another gift with an ungracious speech showing him to be a vindictive angry man who can’t stand having anyone defy him, let alone a woman.

Here’s some of what he said:

“I said, wow, she’s doing a speech like she won. She didn’t win. She lost,” Trump said at the Sheraton in Nashua. “Let’s not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night. She had a very bad night.”

Standing on stage surrounded by some of his former 2024 rivals including Sen. Tim Scott, (R-S.C.), Vivek Ramaswamy, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump talked about watching Haley head up to the stage to deliver her speech “all dressed up nicely.”

It was a moment that clearly aggravated Trump, who had a notably magnanimous tone during his speech after winning the Iowa caucus last week. During that speech, Trump called for unity in the party. This time, Trump declared, “I don’t get too angry, I get even.”

From Politico.

 It led to stories like this:

Trump turns into sinister playground bully in New Hampshire victory lap.

…and this…

Trump fumes in victory, Haley spins in defeat: Takeaways from New Hampshire (Axios).

… and this…

Trump vows to ‘get even’ with Haley in New Hampshire victory speech

Former president dedicates most of his victory speech to bashing and mocking his Republican rival

The pundits I’ve been listening to on MSNBC are all saying that they think Haley will stay in the race as long as possible (and that she can afford to do this since the Koch brothers are helping fund her campaign), but that they hope Trump will be win since he’d be easier to Biden to beat.

Also…

Trump’s New Hampshire victory speech shows he’s running out of time to hide

With the GOP primary wrapping up, Donald Trump obvious decline will soon be in the spotlight of scrutiny

Excerpt:

After his win in the Iowa caucuses last week Donald Trump came to the microphone and gave an uncharacteristically gracious victory speech. It was actually standard stuff, exactly what you’d expect from any candidate except him. In these situations, the job is to try to soothe the hurt and disappointment of voters who opposed you in order to bring their followers to your side as you go through the process. Trump actually tried to do that, prompting the usual round of “he’s pivoting!” from the talking heads. But, as usual, that little burst of decency was short-lived. Last night in New Hampshire, he gave one of the most boorish victory speeches anyone has ever given.

He is obviously extremely angry at Nikki Haley for not losing bigger, dropping out of the race instantly and begging for the privilege of endorsing him for president. And he made no bones about it. Apparently, he believes that it’s even inappropriate for her to appear before her supporters and pledge to continue the race, even though that’s what candidates always do:

Then he seemed to threaten her, making the robotic sycophants standing behind him laugh like a pack of hyenas as he cast out crude innuendo, weirdly claiming that if she won she would end up under investigation for “little stuff she doesn’t want to talk about.”

He even attacked her clothing.

This is what Clare McCaskill said on “Morning Joe” today:

I just think we have to keep reminding everyone, this guy is not well, and what’s up with the orange face?” I mean, has anybody checked to see, is he applying this cheap bronzer to his face in clumps at various times of the day and night and does not realize it makes him look like he’s really unwell. He’s a different shade every day.

He’s confused, he’s angry, and by the way, cracks in the armor appeared last night. According to Donald Trump he’s the incumbent, right? He won four years ago? If you’re the incumbent and can’t manage more than 50 percent of the vote in your own party, you are one weak sister and it is not good for him that he did as poorly as he did. The polls were wrong. They said he was going to win by 20 or 30, and he won by just over 10. Frankly there hasn’t been a great enthusiasm, hasn’t been a good turnout in Iowa or New Hampshire.

Haley may have stumbled on a winning strategy in the lead-up to New Hampshire, when she highlighted Trump’s apparent mental instability, and and the state’s primary revealed the ex-president had lost many of his former supporters and independent voters.

“[President Joe] Biden got a lot of data last night for those Republicans that will never vote for Trump, those independents who don’t want Trump, and that’s the key to the kingdom in this election – finding those moderate Republicans and independent voters. We’re going to solidify the base, I’m confident of that. Bad night for Donald Trump, really bad night.

From RawStory

I doubt Trump will agree to debate Haley but she can taunt him about being afraid to do so. She can call him a big orange chicken who is scared of debating a 128 lb. woman.

Afterthought:

Also on”Morning Joe”the panel discussed how Trump humilated Tim Scott for originally endorsing Haley.

Trump said: “Did you ever think [about how] she actually appointed you, Tim?  You must really hate her.” Scott briefly had the audacity to move to the podium next to Trump and with a grin say “I just love you.” Trump appeared to be taken aback that he’d do this while he was speaking.

The MSNBC pundits think Scott is hoping to be selected to run as Trump’s vice president. Whenever I see the Black bald man flashing his ‘excessive gingival display’ (otherwise known as a gummy smile) at Trump I think that there’s no way he’ll end up being selected to run as vice president.

It has been rumored that Trump told Scott, who has described himself as a proud virgin, that if he wanted to be considered as a VP he’d better get himself a girlfriend which he recently did.

My pinned tweet here:

Read previous Stressline blogs here.