Who is Nalin Haley, the Republican presidential candidate’s son attending Villanova University?

As Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Nikki Haley prepare to face off in South Carolina’s primary election Saturday, one Philadelphia-area college student has a lot on the line.

While Trump’s five adult children have made headlines for years, much less is known about Nalin Haley, the former South Carolina governor’s 22-year-old son who attends Villanova University.

But after the New York Times profiled the younger Haley this month, it’s clear the college senior is getting used to the spotlight.

Besides taking to X to call out his mother’s Republican challengers, Nalin Haley has jetted away from his Main Line campus to speak at her rallies, as the former governor continues her longshot bid to counter the former president’s campaign.

So which of Nikki Haley’s Republican competitors did her son nickname “Pennywise”?

We learned that and more from the Times:

Nalin Haley, born in 2001, is the former governor’s youngest child. His sister, Rena, was born in 1998. Both children were raised in Haley’s home state of South Carolina.

Nalin Haley is a political science major at Villanova, according to a 2023 interview with The Villanovan. He attended high school in New York while his mother served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. He lives in Columbia, S.C.

While he hasn’t publicly expressed political ambitions, he’s begun to appear more prominently at his mother’s rallies in recent months.

According to the Times, Haley told crowds he’s gotten involved because “we have serious problems in this country.”

Two weekends ago, Haley introduced his mom in Gilbert, S.C., as the state prepared for its Saturday primary election — and the 22-year-old wasn’t afraid to take barbs.

Haley has some creative nicknames for his mom’s challengers, according to the Times.

Standing before the South Carolina crowd this month, Haley compared Sen. Tim Scott to a notorious biblical traitor.

“We had a lot of them go up to New Hampshire, and I saw Trump standing side by side, he was next to Sen. Judas — excuse me, Sen. Scott,” Haley said.

The jab stirred the audience; Scott was Haley’s appointee to the Senate in 2012, but is stumping for Trump after having dropped out of the presidential race in November.

And it was Vivek Ramaswamy — the tech entrepreneur turned firebrand political outsider candidate — whom Nalin Haley nicknamed “Pennywise.”

The comparison to the makeup-clad clown from the It movies first came after Ramaswamy brought Rena Haley into the political scrum last year, after the candidate mentioned her TikTok usage despite Nikki Haley’s criticism of the app.

Nalin Haley didn’t let up at his mother’s rally in Summerville, S.C., this month, according to the Times.

“My mom had a talk with me, and I was like, you know what? I feel awful, and I would like to take this chance to apologize to Pennywise,” Haley said. “Because Pennywise is a lot less creepy, a lot less of a clown, and he has a much better hairline than he does.”

While the ‘Nova senior has plenty of insults for less-popular Republicans, Trump is the real cause for concern for the Haley campaign.

Despite Haley spending more money on ads than any other candidate in New Hampshire, Trump took over 50% of the state’s vote in last month’s primary. Meanwhile, the former president leads by 30 points in polls in Haley’s own state heading into the weekend.

Nalin Haley took to X in January for a shot at the Republican front-runner.

After Trump himself told his Truth Social followers that anyone who donated to Nikki Haley’s campaign would be “permanently banned from the MAGA camp,” the younger Haley had this to say of the former president, according to the Times:

“In that case, he should be ‘barred from MAGA’ cuz he’s been our biggest fundraiser yet with this post!”

So far, Nikki Haley’s jabs have been much less pointed than her son’s. The Republican hopeful took a neutral strategy in the early months of her campaign, and only recently started sparring with Trump directly.

But according to the Times, it appears that she appreciates her son’s support.

She recently praised Nalin’s presence on the campaign trail, especially as her husband, Michael, remains stationed in Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard.

As for her son’s barbs, Haley jokingly had this to say after thanking other speakers during one rally:

“Nalin, I will deal with you later.”