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As voters in South Carolina put together to take to the polls on Saturday, Nikki Haley has vowed to proceed difficult former President Donald J. Trump for the Republican nomination — to the dismay of her onetime boss.
In current weeks, Mr. Trump and Ms. Haley, former governor of South Carolina and U.N. ambassador within the Trump administration, have dialed up their assaults on one another.
Mr. Trump has mocked the absence of Ms. Haley’s husband, Maj. Michael Haley, a National Guardsman who’s deployed to Africa. His marketing campaign prompt that her staying within the race, regardless of being properly behind Mr. Trump in delegates, was “like every wailing loser hellbent on another actuality.” Ms. Haley has stated that her rival has “gotten extra unstable and unhinged” and that he has “psychological deficiencies.”
But whereas attacking one another’s file and insurance policies, each have turned to false and deceptive claims.
Here’s a truth verify.
WHAT WAS SAID
“Every ballot exhibits that he can’t beat Biden. Some are down by 5, some are down by seven. On his finest day, it’s margin of error.”
— Ms. Haley, referring to Mr. Trump throughout a Fox News city corridor this month
False. National common election polls do present a good race in a possible Trump-Biden rematch and Ms. Haley has emphasised choose polls that present her beating Mr. Biden by double digits. But Mr. Trump is available in barely larger than his successor in lots of — although not all — surveys.
For instance, Morning Consult lately discovered Mr. Trump main Mr. Biden by 4 factors, exterior the survey’s margin of error.
Other polls present Mr. Trump main Mr. Biden, albeit throughout the margin of error: an NBC News ballot in January surveying registered voters discovered that 47 p.c stated they’d vote for Mr. Trump, in contrast with Mr. Biden’s 42 p.c. (However, the outcomes shifted in Mr. Biden’s favor when the respondents have been requested to contemplate the identical matchup if Mr. Trump have been to be convicted of a felony.) In but different polls, Mr. Biden holds a slight lead over Mr. Trump.
As of Friday, the Real Clear Politics common, which includes a number of polls, confirmed Mr. Trump forward of Mr. Biden by 1.9 share factors. The common in a hypothetical Haley-Biden matchup confirmed Ms. Haley forward by 4.9 share factors.
“The polls at this level aren’t very helpful for predicting the eventual winner, however they do point out that it’s more likely to be a detailed election,” Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, stated of a Trump-Biden contest.
WHAT WAS SAID
“Nikki Haley desires to cost the working class a 23 p.c nationwide gross sales tax.”
— Mr. Trump throughout a January rally
This is deceptive. Ms. Haley has not known as for such a coverage as she campaigns for president. Instead, Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign has cited a 2012 submit from Ms. Haley supporting a “Fair Tax.”
“Yes, I assist the Fair Tax and any reform that will get rid of revenue tax,” Ms. Haley wrote within the 2012 submit on Facebook.
Ms. Haley’s marketing campaign didn’t say what she was referring to in that submit, however she may have been referencing the Fair Tax Act, a proposal that has been repeatedly put ahead in Congress to no avail. The laws seeks to get rid of federal taxes — together with revenue, payroll, property and present taxes — and as an alternative impose a nationwide gross sales tax of 23 p.c. It additionally requires abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.
Many outstanding Republicans, together with Ron DeSantis, now governor of Florida, and former Vice President Mike Pence, have supported the proposal in some unspecified time in the future over time. Critics of the laws have stated the invoice would increase the tax burden of many Americans however spare the rich.
However, Ms. Haley additionally may have been referring to state-level “honest tax” laws that lawmakers in South Carolina — and elsewhere — have been proposing round that point, calling for the elimination of particular state taxes, together with the revenue tax, in favor of a better state gross sales tax. (South Carolina’s proposal would have reportedly raised the gross sales tax to an estimated 6 to 7 p.c from 5 p.c.) In a 2015 Facebook remark, Ms. Haley clearly indicated she supported the state proposal, saying that “the legislature is aware of that in the event that they ship it to me, I’ll signal it.”
WHAT WAS SAID
“Donald Trump must reply to the truth that why did he suggest an 18 cent per gallon fuel tax enhance in 2018 when he was president?”
— Ms. Haley this month throughout a Fox News city corridor
False. Mr. Trump by no means formally proposed a fuel tax enhance, as Ms. Haley prompt. Instead, some lawmakers stated that Mr. Trump had entertained the concept of accelerating the fuel tax by 25 cents — not 18 cents — throughout a non-public, bipartisan assembly.
After that assembly in February 2018, Senator Thomas R. Carper, a Democrat, stated Mr. Trump had endorsed the concept to pay for an infrastructure plan launched by the White House. Some critics shortly denounced the notion.
It was not the primary time Mr. Trump had signaled openness to a fuel tax hike. In 2017, he informed Bloomberg News that he would contemplate such a rise. And in January 2018, The Washington Post, citing an unnamed individual accustomed to the deliberations, reported that Mr. Trump had privately “mused a couple of fuel tax enhance to 50 cents per gallon.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Trump by no means formally put ahead such proposals.
The Trump marketing campaign has additionally repurposed a deceptive declare about Ms. Haley’s file on fuel taxes. A recent ad suggests Ms. Haley known as for elevating the fuel tax in South Carolina as governor however has since lied about it. In truth, Ms. Haley rebuffed calls to extend the state fuel tax as a stand-alone measure and proposed elevating it by 10 cents over three years provided that the state diminished the revenue tax price to five p.c, from 7 p.c, and made adjustments to the state’s Transportation Department.
WHAT WAS SAID
Nikki Haley “really dropped Romney for a short time for Obama.”
— Mr. Trump throughout a rally this month
False. There is not any file of Ms. Haley politically backing former President Barack Obama. The Trump marketing campaign didn’t reply to requests for proof of such assist.
Mr. Trump equally claimed on Truth Social that Ms. Haley “was additionally a Barack Hussein Obama supporter as seen right here.” The submit included a video clip from a 2012 marketing campaign occasion for Mitt Romney, then a Republican presidential candidate, displaying Ms. Haley unintentionally utilizing Mr. Obama’s identify when she meant to reference Mr. Romney.
Ms. Haley stated: “Obama desires to strengthen our navy and can by no means apologize for America.” But Mr. Romney shortly corrected her, because the clip exhibits, and the 2 laughed as Ms. Haley acknowledged the slip.
WHAT WAS SAID
“What is Trump saying he’ll really do in workplace? A ten p.c across-the-board tax enhance.”
— Haley marketing campaign in an advert this month
This is deceptive. Mr. Trump hasn’t proposed a “10 p.c across-the-board tax enhance” on Americans, however he did float a proposal to impose a ten p.c tariff on imported items — which economists say would have an effect on costs for U.S. corporations and customers.
The advert cites a January CNBC article about feedback Mr. Trump made in an August interview with Fox Business.
“I believe when corporations are available they usually dump their merchandise within the United States, they need to pay mechanically, let’s say, a ten p.c tax,” Mr. Trump informed Larry Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council in the course of the Trump administration. “That cash can be used to repay debt.”
“A ten p.c tariff on all imports is a ten p.c across-the-board tax on imports,” Katheryn N. Russ, an economics professor on the University of California, Davis, stated in an e-mail. “It just isn’t an across-the-board tax on all items.”
There are components of Mr. Trump’s imaginative and prescient that stay unclear, together with whether or not the brand new tariff would apply to imports from nations with which the United States has free commerce offers, as The New York Times has reported.
Experts have stated Mr. Trump’s proposal would lead to larger costs for Americans and almost certainly trigger buying and selling companions to retaliate. An economist on the right-leaning Tax Foundation stated such a ten p.c tariff would successfully “increase taxes on American customers by greater than $300 billion a yr” and barely scale back the dimensions of the U.S. financial system.
Tariffs are paid by the U.S.-based importer. While exporters may soak up among the value by reducing costs, analysis on tariffs put in place underneath the Trump administration suggests the prices largely fell on U.S. corporations and customers.
How a lot of a brand new tariff would get shouldered by customers stays an open query, Ms. Russ stated, noting that importing corporations may scale back revenue margins as an alternative of passing the fee to customers. But tariffs may lead to larger costs for home merchandise — if a agency raises costs strategically, given costlier imported merchandise in the marketplace, or if the producer depends on imported inputs.
Imported items and companies have been equal to about 14 p.c of the United States gross home product final yr, in accordance with federal information.
WHAT WAS SAID
“Nikki Haley joined Biden in opposing President Trump’s border wall.”
— Trump marketing campaign in an ad this month
False. Ms. Haley didn’t oppose Mr. Trump’s border wall. She stated in 2015, when Mr. Trump launched his first bid for the presidency, {that a} wall was not the only real reply.
To assist its declare concerning the border wall, the advert cites a 2023 Time article. But that article doesn’t provide proof that Ms. Haley opposed the wall. Instead, it quotes feedback Ms. Haley made throughout a National Press Club occasion, linking to a Washington Post opinion piece from September 2015 describing the occasion.
The Time article quoted Ms. Haley telling Republicans “to do not forget that the material of America got here from these authorized immigrants,” and drawing a distinction between them and immigrants who enter the nation illegally.
Ms. Haley’s full feedback made clear that she didn’t reject the concept of a border wall, so long as it was a part of a broader plan.
“Don’t say you’re simply going to construct a wall, as a result of a wall’s not going to do it,” she stated on the time. “You’ve bought to have dedication of floor troops, tools, cash — all of that, to convey it collectively.”
During her marketing campaign for president, Ms. Haley has additionally supported the concept of increasing the wall.
Curious concerning the accuracy of a declare? Email [email protected].
