Without ever naming him directly, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley stepped up attacks on Donald Trump, calling on conservatives to trust a “new generation” during their high mass on Friday.
The former governor of South Carolina was highly critical of Republicans’ record in several recent elections, where Donald Trump, 76, was kingmaker.
“If you’re tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation,” she urged from the CPAC, an annual Republican rally, organized in the suburbs of Washington.
The 50-year-old, appointed by Donald Trump to the UN in 2017, is the first notable candidate to challenge the billionaire for the Republican nomination in 2024.
The Republican has so far made the age of the former president her main angle of attack, again calling on Friday for “intellectual aptitude tests” for politicians over 75.
This conservative conference is the first time that the two candidates have confronted each other by interposed speech. The former tenant of the White House will go on stage Saturday at the end of the afternoon.
A sign of the hold that the former Republican president retains over this gathering more than two years after leaving the American federal capital: the prestigious place of the closing speech has once again been reserved for him this year. Several members of his family also gave speeches singing his praises on Friday.
For his own speech, Donald Trump promised a “monstrous” event, ensuring conservative activists “a great moment”.
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