Former US president Donald Trump says he feels “sharper now than I did 20 years ago,” reacting to recent attacks on his age and verbal gaffes by Republican presidential rival Nikki Haley.

Trump also said presidential candidates should have to take a cognitive test, apparently a response to a challenge from Haley, who has advocated the same policy, citing the age of Trump, 77, and Democratic President Joe Biden, 81.

Trump was speaking at a rally in Nevada, ahead of the next vote in the Republican presidential nominating race, a caucus in the state on February 8.

In recent days Haley has accused former Republican President Trump of being confused and has questioned his ability to be president at his age.

Trump in turn has branded Haley as “Birdbrain” and makes frequent derisive references to Joe Biden’s frequently incomprehensible speeches.

Trump has recently made some verbal slip-ups. During a speech on January 19 he confused Haley with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On occasion he has appeared to slur his words and he also suggested former Democratic president Barack Obama was still in office.

Set to romp in Nevada

Trump is almost assured of all of Nevada’s 26 delegates because Haley is not competing in the caucus. He attacked both Haley and Biden, trying to knock Haley out of the Republican nominating fight while scoring early points in a likely general election rematch with Biden in November.

Trump’s back-to-back wins in the Iowa and New Hampshire Republican contests have all but assured him his party’s White House nomination. But he is infuriated that Haley, his last remaining Republican rival, has refused to drop out.

Trump and his allies have begun a campaign to force Haley out of the race before the next major vote in the primary race, in her home state of South Carolina on February 24. Trump has threatened to banish from his political orbit any donors who continue to fund Haley.

Haley has pledged to keep campaigning in South Carolina, her home state, and beyond.

In his Nevada speech, Trump accused Haley – a mainstream Republican – of being “almost a radical left Democrat”.

Trump declared: “It’s time to finish this,” referring to his nomination fight. He leads Haley in opinion polls in South Carolina and she has no clear path to the nomination.

‘Threat to democracy’

After Trump’s win in the New Hampshire primary on January 23, the Biden campaign issued a statement, saying: “It is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.”

Turning his attention to Biden, Trump focused much of his speech on the southern border.

Record numbers of migrants have been caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border since Biden took office in 2021, and opinion polls show immigration and the border as a top issue in this year’s general election.

Trump called the illegal crossing a “catastrophe”, an “invasion” and the southern border as an “open wound”.

Meanwhile, Biden and his campaign aides have intensified attacks on Trump in recent days, calling him “a threat to US democracy” and tying him to the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision referring abortion rights back to individual states, an issue that has been blamed with hurting Republicans during the 2022 midterm elections.

-AAP