Donald Trump Told Nikki Haley to Run for President. Now He’s Patronizing Her Over a Possible Bid

Nikki Haley’s long shot presidential campaign is still days away from officially launching, but with no other challengers yet downrange, Donald Trump and his allies are taking some early shots against the former South Carolina governor. The attacks so far include labeling Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, a disloyal arriviste solely vying for a VEEP nomination; a Bush-era neo-con relic; and a Black Lives Matter sympathizer.

The disloyalty charge—a more veiled knock—that stems from Haley’s past public assurances that she would not run against her former boss, comes, curiously, after the former president previously said he encouraged Haley to run. “Nikki has to follow her heart, not her honor. She should definitely run!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, this time including a two-year-old clip of Haley promising not to challenge him in 2024.

Given that the post barely registers on Trump’s scale of political mudslinging, the former president appears to consider Haley’s campaign as prey to be toyed with as opposed to some serious threat. National surveys of likely Republican primary voters show Haley polling in the single digits, with most respondents favoring Trump and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the only prospective 2024 contender by who Trump seems truly perturbed.

One Trump adviser told the Daily Beast that Trump and his allies see Haley as a way to pad their record and train for the real fights down the road. “In 2016, you come at the king, you’re gonna get wrecked,” the adviser told the outlet in a Sunday report. “In 2024, I think there’s going to be a different kind of Trump on display. He’ll be all 2016 on guys like DeSantis, but Haley, who had a respectful conversation with him? He will deal with her in a 2024 fashion.” Likewise, a Republican strategist told the Daily Beast that Haley is “the Carly Fiorina of 2024,” the former Hewlett Packard CEO and only woman to enter the GOP primary in 2016, who ran a short-lived campaign and ended up as Senator Ted Cruz’s running mate in the final stretch of another losing effort.

Trump-aligned figures have already honed in on Haley’s record on immigration, race politics, and crime. Tucker Carlson, a leading face of Trump’s “America First” movement on Fox News, delivered a tirade about Haley last week: “It wasn’t that long ago that Nikki Haley explained immigrants are more patriotic than you are,” the Fox News host said. “She also endorsed the BLM riots. She said George Floyd’s death needs to be painful for everyone.” During the segment, Carlson spoke with a former Haley aide, Justin Evans, who predicted that Haley would drop out before the first caucus is held. “She just walks away when times get tough,” said Evans, referencing Haley’s exits as governor and UN ambassador. “She’s never finished a job.”

In a recent interview with Hugh Hewitt, Trump offered a similar talking point. “She’s a very ambitious person. She just couldn’t stay in her seat,” he said. Then he repeated his seemingly fake words of encouragement once again: “You know what, Nikki, if you want to run, you go ahead and run.”