“I would not run if President Trump ran,” said Nikki Haley.
By Josh Plank, World Israel News
Nikki Haley will support former President Donald Trump if he runs for office again in 2024, the former U.S. ambassador to the UN told reporters at South Carolina State University on Monday.
Haley, who served as governor of South Carolina before joining the Trump administration, also said she would put her own presidential ambitions on hold rather than face off against the former president.
“I would not run if President Trump ran,” said Haley, adding, “and I would talk to him about it.”
“That’s something that we’ll have a conversation about at some point if that decision is something that has to be made,” she said.
Whether or not Trump has an interest in talking with Haley may be a different matter. Politico reported in February that Trump had turned down a request by Haley for a sit-down meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
She told reporters on Monday that the last time the two had talked was sometime after the 2020 election but before the January 6 Capitol riot.
Haley harshly criticized Trump on January 7 at a Republican National Committee dinner, saying, “He was badly wrong with his words yesterday. And it wasn’t just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.”
In an interview published by Politico in February, Haley seemed certain that Trump’s political career was over. “He’s not going to run for federal office again…
“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far,” Haley said.
“He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again,” she said.
In contrast, Haley’s comments on Monday showed no sign of negativity towards Trump, except to say that he has “always been opinionated.”
Haley said she had a “great working relationship” with the former president. “I thought we did some fantastically great foreign policy things together,” she said.
Haley was highly critical of Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, in which she supported Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK,” Haley said of Trump at the time. “That is not a part of our party. That’s not who we want as president. We will not allow that in our country.”