Even by the standards of sometime “never-Trump” Republicans, Nikki Haley has had something of a complex relationship with Donald Trump and Trumpism.
As an NBC News timeline pointed out, when Trump first began running for president in 2015, the then-South Carolina governor was a sharp Trump critic, backing Sen. Marco Rubio for president. She ultimately endorsed Trump, and when he was elected, she joined his administration as the ambassador to the United Nations.
After January 6, Haley was again critical of Trump, rejecting stolen election claims and stating that “his actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.” As the 2024 primaries approached, Haley said she would not run for president if Trump ran again but decided to run anyway. Haley was the last major candidate standing against Trump, ultimately dropping out. However, she did not endorse Trump until she spoke at the Republican National Convention, stating, “You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him.”
Since then, Haley has not been a prominent Trump surrogate, announcing this week that she had accepted a private-sector position with Edelman, a prominent communications firm. As part of that, Haley made a media appearance this week where she gave the former president some advice, about how to speak to women.
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Appearing over the weekend on the Fox News show Fox and Friends, Haley said that she’s “on standby” to serve as a surrogate for the Trump campaign. Then, host Brian Kilmeade asked her why she believes Trump is trailing Kamala Harris among women, with one poll giving Harris a lead of 14 points among woman voters.
Nikki Haley on Fox & Friends: “Donald Trump and JD Vance need to change the way they speak about women. You don’t need to call Kamala dumb. She didn’t get this far just by accident.” pic.twitter.com/pzO6XjYgWi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 9, 2024
“I think it’s because “Donald Trump and JD Vance need to change the way they speak about women,” Haley said on the show. “You don’t need to call Kamala dumb. She didn’t get this far just by accident.
“You don’t know to go and to talk about intelligence, or looks, or anything else. Just focus on the policies. When you call even a Democrat woman dumb, Republican women get their backs up too. The bottom line is, we win on policies, leave all the other stuff.”
Ironically, during her run for president, Haley was frequently directly critical of the vice president, stating on the trail that “it’s either gonna be me, or it’s gonna be Kamala Harris.” This was seen at the time as a possible play for Trump to choose her as his running mate. More recently, a group of former Haley supporters have formed a group called Haley Voters for Harris- leading Haley to denounce the group and ask that her name not be used.
There’s little doubt, though, that Trump and Vance have a problem when it comes to woman voters. The way Trump speaks about women has been a frequent issue going back to his first campaign, even before the Access Hollywood tape, while Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” have been frequently used against him. Haley, in the same interview, called those comments “not helpful.”
Also over the weekend, Semafor reported on a mysterious network of influencers that pushed “sexual smears” about Harris.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery.
