Trump says he purposely conflated Pelosi with Haley: 'It's very hard to be sarcastic’

Former President Trump said he purposely conflated Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley last month.

“So it's very hard to be sarcastic when I interpose. I'm not a Nicki fan, and I'm not a Pelosi fan. And when I purposely interpose names they said, 'He didn't know Pelosi from Nikki, from tricky Nikki,” Trump said during a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, Wednesday.

“I interpose and they make a big deal out of it. I said, 'No, no, I think they both stink, they have something in common they both stink.’ Remember this. When I make a statement like that about Nikki that means she will never be running for vice president,” he continued.

Trump appeared to mix up Pelosi with Haley during a campaign stop in New Hampshire last month when talking about Jan. 6, 2021. He was repeating a baseless claim that Pelosi was to blame for security failures at the Capitol on that day, but instead blamed Haley instead of Pelosi. 

“By the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. You know Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know, they — do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it,” he claimed last month.

“Because of lots of things…like Nikki Haley is in charge of security — we offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people,” Trump continued.

The Speaker of the House cannot direct the National Guard.

His apparent mixup drew criticism from Haley and President Biden’s campaign. Haley raised concerns over whether Trump is mentally fit enough to be president and Biden’s campaign mocked him for the apparent gaffe.

“I don’t agree with Nikki Haley on everything, but we agree on this much: She is not Nancy Pelosi,” Biden wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, at the time.

Trump’s campaign rally in South Carolina comes weeks ahead of the primary election in the state. Haley remains the only major challenger to Trump in the race and is trying to shore up support in her home state before the primary.

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling average, Trump has nearly a 35-point lead over Haley in South Carolina, with nearly 65 percent of support.

The Hill reached out to Haley's and Trump's campaigns.