The campaign. Not Nikki Haley. That’s the message. For the campaign to claim that Nikki stays above the fray, the campaign sent out a memo full of snark and vinegar. Haley’s campaign manager Betsy Ankney wrote the memo. Mostly she ripped into Trump’s “drama” but she made sure to include her opinion on Governor DeSantis, too. She did not, however, mention Governor Asa Hutchinson or Vivek Ramaswamy by name who have officially entered the GOP primary race.

Governor DeSantis has not officially entered the race but that isn’t stopping the others from jumping ugly on him. Everyone expects him to take the leap when the Florida Legislature completes its session. He does still have a day job and he’s using it to do what he can to advance his agenda. He’d be a fool not to do that. He creates political headlines that the other candidates cannot do because he is the only one currently in political office.

The campaign memo, obtained by Axios, was sent to donors and supporters. Haley’s poll numbers are still very low, in the single digits, but the memo shows that her fundraising skills are lucrative. Since she launched her campaign six weeks ago, she has raised $11M.

Last week, we announced our impressive end of quarter fundraising performance. We raised over $11 million in six weeks. That’s more than Donald Trump raised in his first quarter in this race, and more than nearly all the Republican presidential candidates in 2016 raised in their first quarter. We had 70,000 donations from all 50 states – thanks to our tireless candidate, our great fundraising team, our grassroots supporters, and all who donated and hosted events around the country.

Regardless if you are a Nikki supporter or not, $11M in six weeks is a good haul to start a campaign. The memo (three pages long) went on to talk about the events she is doing and the time she is spending in Iowa this month and in New Hampshire at the end of April. She has also held some rallies in South Carolina and spoke to a crowd of 700 at the Palm Beach Synagogue.

Then she did something a little unusual. Instead of keeping the focus on her, the campaign went on to trash Trump and DeSantis and a lesser extent, Governor Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy. She did a recap of what the others were up to during the last six weeks.

Donald Trump had a pretty good Q1, if you count being indicted as “good.” The sensationalized partisan prosecution in Manhattan understandably made Republicans more sympathetic to the former president. It is an outrageous prosecutorial abuse. Still, it’s increasingly clear that Trump’s candidacy is more consumed by the grievances of the past and the promise of more drama in the future, rather than a forward-looking vision for the American people. Last week, while President Trump was in a New York courtroom, Nikki was on the U.S.-Mexico border offering her plan for stopping illegal immigration.

Ron DeSantis essentially launched his presidential campaign with a national book tour during this period and made one misstep after another, confirming what many observers have long suspected: he’s not ready for prime time. Among other things, he declared Russia’s brutal, unprovoked, and illegal invasion of Ukraine a mere “territorial dispute.” Conservative columnist George Will observed, “A presidential campaign is a rigorous apprenticeship that DeSantis, although still not an announced candidate, is, less than a mile into the marathon, flunking.”

And then there are the others. Wait, what others? For months (even years) many have been touted as would-be presidential candidates. None have taken the plunge. That’s of course their decision, but they certainly did nothing to help themselves in the first part of the year. By contrast, Nikki is a decisive person. When she puts her mind to something, she’s IN IT, devoting all her energy to it night and day, week-in and week-out. She is proving that with her strong fundraising and active grassroots campaigning.

And on it went.

What this tells me is that it is early days in the campaign season, to be sure, but Haley and Trump are worried that DeSantis will get into the race. Trump still has confidence (when doesn’t he?) that he’ll handily beat DeSantis in the primary but Haley knows she cannot beat him. Neither Hutchinson nor Ramaswamy is going to make a blip in the radar. Hutchinson is of the wing of the party that has gone the way of the dinosaurs and Ramaswamy is a very smart man but he’s young and not well-known, despite his umpteen appearances on Fox News Channel. Interestingly enough, Ramaswamy is likely to deliver a slap to DeSantis during his interviews and praise Trump, a clear indication of which person he is betting will win the primary race.

Ramaswamy would make a good member of a presidential cabinet. Nikki would be a good vice-presidential candidate. Hutchinson may not last until Iowa. Is anyone else going to get in? We have to wait and see. My crystal ball isn’t any better than yours.

Something that Nikki’s memo left out is that DeSantis is the fundraising beast of this cycle so far. Whether it is for his campaign war chest or, most importantly, for county Republican Parties, he is a stellar fundraising draw to events. He set all-time records in both Dallas and Harris Counties this year for their annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinners. He’s been doing the same across the country, including California. That’s not something to take lightly.

I still think DeSantis will get in and Nikki is going to have to figure out how long she plans to stay in the race. There’s time. In the meantime, she is laying the groundwork for a future run for president. Despite what Don Lemon said, Nikki is not past her prime.

Nikki was quiet when she first entered the primary and didn’t say anything about the other candidates. Now she is beginning to speak up – through her campaign, of course – and things might get interesting. Her line that DeSantis isn’t ready for prime time yet is interesting. It is much like the way a Trump-friendly PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., insists in its commercials that DeSantis isn’t ready and should wait until 2028 to run. We’ll see.