With a population that’s over 92% white and a median income 21% higher than the national average, New Hampshire is not a good stand-in for the nation. But on Tuesday night, it was perfect for one thing—illustrating how Donald Trump and his supporters respond to even a whiff of bad news.
As of Wednesday morning, with nearly all the votes tallied,, Trump had beaten former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley by 11 percentage points. However, polls going into the election showed Trump with a lead of nearly 18 points. In other words, Trump underperformed expectations.
Trump wanted a blowout win, one large enough to drive Haley to suspend her campaign. But that didn’t happen. So Trump responded as Trump does: with false claims, threats, and insults. Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leading Trump sycophant, went straight to the conspiracy closet.
While Trump was being disappointed in New Hampshire, President Joe Biden was having a better night. Despite electing not to appear on the state ballot, and suggestions from several outlets that he might lose, Biden cruised to an easy victory, even though that required voters to write in his name.
Biden outperformed expectations. Trump underwhelmed. As of Wednesday morning, it looks like he’ll go home with just 12 of New Hampshire’s 22 delegates.
Trump seemed to sense that things weren’t going his way because he started the evening with an all-caps complaint that “DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY.” This wasn’t the first time Trump made this claim. It’s not even the second. But just because he said it at least three times doesn’t make it any less a lie. As USA Today made clear, New Hampshire has a closed primary, and only registered Republicans and those registered as undeclared are eligible to vote in the Republican primary.
But Trump’s assertions that Haley’s vote was being plumped up by crossover Democrats was just a warm-up lie.
Despite claiming he won New Hampshire in multiple general elections, Trump lost the state twice: once to Hillary Clinton in 2016, and again, by a much larger margin, to Joe Biden in 2020. Trump has never won a general election in New Hampshire.
By the time Trump made this false claim during his victory speech, Greene had slithered down the conspiracy rabbit hole, claiming that Haley’s support included “fake numbers” and that Haley was a “fake candidate.”
Greene followed up by saying that political consultants “should go to jail” for enabling Haley’s campaign.
Meanwhile, there was at least one registered Republican voter who emerged to explain why Trump’s numbers were not as good as he might like, giving hope that at least a few Republican voters have opened their eyes long enough to understand what Trump’s about.
Campaign Action
Tim Miller from The Next Level podcast comes on to discuss Iowa, New Hampshire, and the cracks they expose in Donald Trump’s MAGA-movement.