Nikki Haley's long shot campaign has a persistent problem: Each time she criticizes former President Trump, the Biden campaign promotes the hell out of it.

Why it matters: The Biden campaign has moved from focusing on attacking Haley to using the GOP primary candidate's words against Trump, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.

• "I'm running against him because I don't think he should be president," Haley told Jonathan Karl on ABC's "This Week."
• "The last thing on my mind is who I'm going to support. The only thing on my mind is how we're going to win this."
• The Biden campaign blasted out the Haley interview, focusing on her comments about Trump's "bone-chilling" comments on Russian President Vladimir Putin and NATO.

On X, Biden's team has also clipped the following Haley segments:

• Trump's lack of military service, Trump's losing elections, Trump's siding with Putin and Trump's confusing Haley for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Jan 6.

On Truth Social, Haley is an even more prominent fixture. Clips posted by Biden include Haley's comments on:

• Trump's wanting to cut Social Security, Trump's calling service members suckers and losers, why Trump shouldn't be telling Republicans not to secure border and how Trump added $8 trillion in debt.
• This is part of a pattern of the Biden campaign promoting anti-Trump comments by longtime Republicans.

Zoom out: Haley consistently polls better than Trump against Biden, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

• But Trump has easily won primaries so far and is polling by an average of more than 30 percentage points ahead of Haley in South Carolina, where she was governor until 2017.

The bottom line: "Democrats want nothing more than for Donald Trump to be the nominee because they know they will beat him in November," Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas told Axios.

• "It's not a coincidence that she's their best surrogate," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Axios in a statement.

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Nestled in a CNN story about Vice President Kamala Harris' growing influence on the 2024 campaign was a juicy nugget about her potential 2028 rivals.

Why it matters: Top Democratic surrogates are having to find other ways to nudge Biden's campaign after the primary ended in a whimper.

👀 At a recent Saturday evening dinner meeting Harris hosted for six Democratic governors and their chiefs of staff, CNN reports:

• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer "slammed" how Biden and his campaign talk about abortion rights.
• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker "hammered" Biden's handling of the migrant crisis and demanded they press harder on Republicans for blowing up the border deal.
• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore "complained" the campaign's doing a bad job of reaching young people.

Zoom in: The dinners are part of her strategy to push the insular campaign.

• Harris' camp was keen to remind CNN that a Biden campaign aide is always present at these sessions.

🗓 Mark your calendars for this year's most intriguing Senate primaries:

• March 5: California's top-two primary, with high-profile Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff trying to outlast Republican (and former Dodger) Steve Garvey to make the November ballot.
• March 19: Ohio Republicans, with a member of the family that owns Cleveland's baseball team facing a Trump-endorsed businessman for a chance to challenge Sen. Sherrod Brown in a "toss-up" November race.
• May 14: Maryland Democrats, where businessman David Trone and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are competing to most likely face former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in November. The race was upgraded from "solid Democrat" to "likely Democrat" after Hogan's surprise entry.
• June 4: New Jersey Democrats, where indicted Sen. Robert Menendez still hasn't decided to run — and New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy is battling Rep. Andy Kim in Menendez's absence.
• June 25: Utah Republicans, with a huge field — including the late Sen. Orrin Hatch's son — is forming to replace the retiring Sen. Mitt Romney.

Trump's newest merchandise sold out within hours of his appearance at Sneaker Con yesterday in Philadelphia, a detour from his courtroom appearances and campaign rallies.

• The "Never Surrender High-Top Sneaker" — with as many as 10 of the 1,000 that were made featuring Trump's autograph — went on sale for $399, Axios' Shauneen Miranda reports.
• Trump said he's been talking about the idea for "12 years, 13 years, and I think it's going to be a big success."