Trump resurrects the word ‘bigly’ in Fox News town hall

The former president brought out his infamous adjective on Tuesday night, to describe the scale of his GOP rival Nikki Haley’s current losses

Donald Trump resurrected one of his infamous adjectives at a recent town hall event, telling supporters that his GOP rival for the presidency Nikki Haley was losing the race “bigly”.

The former president said that he and his campaign would “do a job” in the state of South Carolina, where Ms Haley was formerly governor.

The state primary is set for Saturday 24 February. Mr Trump currently leads in state polling from FiveThirtyEight, commanding 63.5 per cent of the vote, in comparison to Ms Haley’s 33.5 per cent.

Speaking at the Fox News event in Greenville on Tuesday night Mr Trump blasted his former UN ambassador.

“You’re not supposed to lose your home state, shouldn’t happen anyway, and she’s losing it big... I said bigly,” he said. “She’s losing it bigly, we’re gonna really do a job [on her].”

Mr Trump appeared at a town hall event, hosted by Fox News, in South Carolina on Tuesday (AP)

The word “bigly” first appeared in Mr Trump’s lexicon during the 2016 presidential debates.

The term sparked a post-debate debate; some argued that Mr Trump was saying “big league,” but others argued that a close listen renders “bigly.” The term is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as an adverb form of “big.”

Mr Trump has trounced Ms Haley in all head-to-head competitions so far. In Nevada, she also suffered further defeat by losing on a ballot that the former president did not feature on – losing out to the option of “none of these candidates”.

Asked why Ms Haley remained in the competition – having promised to hang on until the South Carolina primary – Mr Trump replied: “I don’t think she knows how to get out actually. I really don’t.

“If she was doing well, I’d understand it. But she’s doing very poorly. She lost in record numbers in Iowa record numbers in New Hampshire… and Nevada.”

Mr Trump has been open with his previous disdain for Ms Haley, having referred to her as “Birdbrain” – another of his favourite insults, which means a stupid person.