Trump escalates attacks on Haley as he seeks New Hampshire knockout -…

(CNN) — Donald Trump is seeking to deliver a knockout blow to Nikki Haley in New Hampshire’s Republican primary, deploying racist dog whistles against the onetime South Carolina governor as the former president ramps up his campaign schedule and hammers his rival on the airwaves.

For weeks, Trump’s campaign has treated Haley as a serious threat in New Hampshire — and the candidate himself made that clear starting Tuesday with a series of attacks on social media and at a rally in the state.

He went after Haley while referring to her first name, Nimarata, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social (though he misspelled Nimarata as Nimrada). Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa and took her husband’s last name after they married.

Trump also recently amplified a post that falsely claimed Haley was ineligible to run for president because her parents were not United States citizens at the time of…