Donald Trump Sends Ominous Threat to Nikki Haley if She Wins

After winning by an 11.5 percent margin over the former U.N. ambassador, Donald Trump issued an ominous threat against his rival Nikki Haley, saying that she would end up under investigation for "stuff she doesn't want to talk about" should she win the Republican primary.

Following an unprecedented victory in Iowa, where the embattled former president got 51.01 percent of the vote, Trump scored another win on Tuesday, taking New Hampshire with 54.5 percent of the primary vote. His only standing rival, Haley, got 43.2 percent of the vote. The state was considered potentially the only competitive primary in the entire country.

Addressing his supporters after his victory in New Hampshire was announced, Trump blasted Haley, attacking her on her personal style—saying her clothes are "not so fancy"—and bashing her campaign, saying that she had "a very bad night" despite acting like she won.

Nodding at his own legal battles, which he has alleged are part of a political "witch hunt" against him, Trump said that Haley would be under investigation "within minutes" if she won the Republican primary.

"Just a little note to Nikki. She's not going to win," he said. "But if she did, she would be under investigation by those people in 15 minutes, and I can tell you five reasons why already—not big reasons. Little stuff that she doesn't want to talk about," he said.

"But she would be under investigation within minutes. And so would Ron [DeSantis] have been, but he decided to get out."

The former president did not elaborate on his claim, nor did he specify what Haley could be investigated for. Newsweek contacted Trump's and Haley's campaign teams for comment by email on Wednesday.

Haley thanked voters in New Hampshire after the primary results were officially announced, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter: "The political class wanted us to believe that this race was over before it even began. You proved them wrong, and I am so grateful. It's time to put the negativity and chaos behind us. Our fight is not over, because we have a country to save."

While Haley trailed Trump on Tuesday, the former South Carolina governor did so with a much narrower margin than estimated by most polling, outperforming expectations. In Iowa, Haley won 19.1 percent of the vote, arriving third after Trump and DeSantis, who dropped out of the primary race on Sunday and endorsed the former president.

Amid speculation about Haley dropping out of the primary in case of a defeat in New Hampshire, the presidential hopeful said she will make it to the race in her home state of South Carolina next month.

"Donald Trump's only strategy is to lie about me and my record. That's not going to work in South Carolina," Haley wrote on X on Tuesday.

"The people of South Carolina know that I cut their taxes, passed one of the toughest immigration bills in the country, and moved thousands from welfare to work."

In national polls, Trump is still the frontrunner with 67.7 percent of the vote as of January 23, well ahead of Haley with 12.4 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight.