Without ever naming him directly, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley stepped up attacks on Donald Trump and urged conservatives to put their trust in a “new generation” during their high mass on Friday.
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The former South Carolina governor has been highly critical of Republican records in several recent elections in which Donald Trump, 76, was kingmaker.
“If you’re tired of losing, trust a new generation,” she urged of CPAC, an annual Republican rally organized in the Washington suburbs.
The 50-year-old, who was appointed to the UN by Donald Trump in 2017, is the first notable candidate to challenge the billionaire for the Republican nomination in 2024.
The Republican has so far made the ex-president’s age her main point of attack and on Friday again called for “intellectual aptitude tests” for politicians over 75.
This Conservative conference marks the first time the two candidates have faced each other through interlocutory speeches.
The former White House tenant will take to the stage late Saturday afternoon.
A sign of the bond that the former Republican President is maintaining at this meeting more than two years after leaving the American federal capital: This year, too, the prestigious place for the closing speech is reserved for him.
Several members of his family also gave speeches praising him on Friday.
For his own speech, Donald Trump promised a “monstrous” event and assured conservative activists of “a great moment.”