Before deciding to come head-to-head with him in the 2024 election, Nikki Haley had quite a history of criticizing Donald Trump. In 2016, she told Today, “Mr. Trump has definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk.” She was referring to the former president’s notorious legacy of misinformation, but despite these concerns, she still decided to join his administration. As a result, she became the first woman of color (her parents are South Asian) to achieve a senior position in Trump’s cabinet.
From 2017 to 2018, Haley represented the United States as an Ambassador to the U.N.
When she left the Trump administration, she decided to stay active in Republican politics. In 2021, after the Capitol riots, she encouraged the GOP to move past Trump’s destructive leadership. But despite making her stance known, she later retracted her disapproval of Donald Trump being president, telling the Wall Street Journal that the country needed him in the Republic party, and that she didn’t want to go back to pre-Trump days.
Somehow, Haley has managed to emphasize how important Donald Trump’s influence was for the Republicans, but simultaneously has criticized his errors. Now that she hopes to succeed in the 2024 presidential election, Haley is back to denouncing Trump, which makes sense since he is her primary competitor for the Republican nomination.
It may be a tricky task to get him out — despite being indicted in both federal and civil court cases, even prison couldn’t hold him back from running for president a second time.
