Haley’s recent announcement that she will vote for Trump demonstrates again that the GOP has no courage or principles.
Yet another Republican has surrendered to Donald Trump’s extremism. This time, former Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, kissed the ring, announcing that she would vote for Trump in a speech at the Hudson Institute. In doing so, Haley joins a litany of Republicans who, despite posturing as moral martyrs for so-called moderate Republicanism, have put their political careers over their principles. It is yet another example of how broken the GOP has become.
Nikki Haley’s Feigned Opposition
What makes Haley’s decision to endorse Trump so noxious is the way she consistently ran her campaign as a sort of moral correction to Trump’s sickening politics. Even before campaigning for president, Haley criticized Trump’s administration and conduct after he left office. In an interview with Politico, she said, “Never did I think he would spiral out like this. … I don’t feel like I know who he is anymore. … The person that I worked with is not the person that I have watched since the election.”
Throughout her time in his administration and even before its existence, she carefully navigated around directly and publicly criticizing Trump while avoiding the sycophantic approach others within the Trump administration upheld. However, when it came to her bid for the presidency this year, Haley was forced to show her real feelings towards the former president, lambasting him for his memory, calling him “toxic” and lacking in “moral clarity.”
“He’s made it chaotic. He’s made it self-absorbed. He’s made people dislike and judge each other. He’s left that a president should have moral clarity, and know the difference between right or wrong, and he’s just toxic…”
This direct criticism should, in a reasonable person, merit a commitment to avoid allowing such a toxic figure, a label Haley herself applied to Trump, to get into the White House. Instead, Haley demonstrated the opposite is true with her. Her criticism and her seemingly principled concerns about Trump only served as a means to bolster her campaign, and when they were no longer useful, she was perfectly willing to throw them away at the point of earliest convenience.
Principled Trump Supporter? Not so Fast
When evaluating a political figure’s self-stated reasons for supporting a candidate, it is important to determine whether their statements match their actions. Such a statement is obvious and should go without saying, but in the case of Haley’s defense of her Trump support, it needs reiterating because very few of her stated reasons for supporting Trump should actually lead her to support the former president.
In her remarks before the Hudson Institute, Haley explained that:
“As a voter, I’d put my priorities on a president who is going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account; who would secure the border, no more excuses; a president who would support capitalism and freedom; a president who understands we need less debt, not more debt; Trump has not been perfect on these policies — I have made that clear many, many times — but Biden has been a catastrophe. So, I will be voting for Trump.”
None of these stated concerns can justify supporting Trump. They barely did when he was running the first time around, and they certainly don’t justify it now. Even on the calls to secure the border, which Republicans have made a rallying cry, Trump has demonstrated his lackluster commitment. When the Biden administration attempted to negotiate a deal with the House GOP, and it seemed like it was finally within grasp, Trump and his allies encouraged the House Republicans to kill the bill. Even as President Biden stated he would close the border if the House passed legislation to give him the power to do so, Trump and his allies knowingly opposed said action.
Supporting Trump in the name of backing our allies is also a laughable canard. Trump has repeatedly mused about leaving NATO even in the face of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. In one instance, he said that he would allow Russia to do “whatever the hell they want…” if a NATO member didn’t pay enough. As I noted before, NATO has no payment requirement like the one Trump advocates; it is a requirement he conjured out of thin air.
I could go on about how Trump ballooned the debt or how the idea that the Democrats are somehow socialists who want to destroy capitalism is absurd, but none of that changes the simple reality that Nikki Haley knows this. She is perfectly aware that Trump is antithetical to her principles and announced her support for Trump anyway. Nikki Haley knows full well that Trump will not be her ideal candidate or even adequately address the concerns she claimed to hold dear, but she also knows that as long as she spoke her mind, her career would be over within the GOP. She made the calculation, and she chose her path. She’s just like all the rest of the GOP, entirely without character.
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References
Alberta, Tim. 2024. “Nikki Haley’s Time for Choosing.” https://politico.com/interactives/2021/magazine-nikki-haleys-choice/ (May 24, 2024).
Aleem, Zeeshan. 2024a. “Opinion | The Real Reason Nikki Haley Said She’s Voting for Trump.” MSNBC.com. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/nikki-haley-trump-vote-2024-election-rcna153693 (May 24, 2024).
Aleem, Zeeshan. 2024b. “Opinion | Trump Encouraging Russia to Attack NATO Allies Is as Foolish as It Is Dangerous.” MSNBC.com. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-comments-delinquent-nato-russia-invade-rcna138439 (May 24, 2024).
Chinchilla, Rudy. 2024a. “Trump Draws Backlash after Saying He’d Let Russia Attack NATO Countries He Deems ‘Delinquent.’” NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-says-russia-whatever-hell-want-nato-countries-dont-pay-enough-rcna138256 (May 24, 2024).
Chinchilla, Rudy. 2024b. “Trump Says He’d Let Russia Attack NATO Countries That Don’t Pay Enough.” MSNBC. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-says-russia-whatever-hell-want-nato-countries-dont-pay-enough-rcna138256 (May 24, 2024).
Davis, Ebony. 2024. “Haley Offers Her Sharpest Trump Criticism yet, Saying He’s ‘Toxic’ and Lacks ‘Moral Clarity’ | CNN Politics.” CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/31/politics/haley-criticism-trump-breakfast-club/index.html (May 24, 2024).
“How Much Did President Trump Add to the Debt?-2024-01-10.” 2024. https://www.crfb.org/blogs/how-much-did-president-trump-add-debt (May 24, 2024).
Kelly, Conor. 2024. “Marjorie Taylor Greene Wants To Withdraw from NATO: A Disastrous Idea.” The Progressive American. https://theprogressiveamerican.com/2024/04/18/marjorie-taylor-greene-wants-to-withdraw-from-nato-a-disastrous-idea/ (May 24, 2024).
Kinnard, Meg, and Steve Peoples. 2024. “Nikki Haley Suspends Her Campaign and Leaves Donald Trump as the Last Major Republican Candidate.” AP News. https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-republican-trump-super-tuesday-losses-95ab56b68a8eefbbf04ef90f2f00ef29 (May 23, 2024).
Main, Alison, Jeff Zeleny, and Eric Bradner. 2024. “Nikki Haley Says She’s Voting for Trump in November | CNN Politics.” CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/22/politics/nikki-haley-donald-trump/index.html (May 23, 2024).
“Top Senate Dem Reacts to Trump’s Alarming NATO Comments.” MSNBC.com. https://www.msnbc.com/jonathan-capehart/watch/top-senate-dem-reacts-to-trump-s-alarming-nato-comments-204025413656 (May 24, 2024).
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