By Nathan Layne
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, said he was not worried Chris Christie’s exit from the race would boost Nikki Haley’s candidacy in this month’s New Hampshire primary and hurt his performance in the state.
“I’m not exactly worried about it,” Trump said when asked at a Fox News town hall in Des Moines about the impact of former New Jersey Governor Christie ending his bid for the 2024 nomination on Wednesday.
“I love the people. They love me, I think,” he said.
Trump noted that Christie was overheard on Wednesday predicting that former U.N. Ambassador Haley was “gonna get smoked” in the race and was “not up to” the job of the presidency, saying he agreed with Christie.
Trump said the Haley comment was one of the few things that Christie, a critic of Trump’s policies and character, was right about.
Trump retains a commanding lead in the contest to be the party’s nominee against President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election, according to a nationwide Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Tuesday.
The poll put him at 49%, ahead of Haley at 12% and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 11%.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Des Moines, Iowa; Editing by Howard Goller)
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