Nikki Haley says she will support and not challenge Trump if he runs in 2024

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“Yes,” said Haley, the former Republican Governor of South Carolina, in response to a question from The Associated Press at a press conference at South Carolina State University when asked if she would support another Trump White House bid. . Haley explained that she would not launch her own presidential campaign “ if President Trump flee, and I would talk to him about it. ”

“That’s something we’ll have a conversation about at some point, if that decision is something that needs to be made,” she said.

Haley’s comments – considered one of the most high-profile potential 2024 contenders – underscore the intense popularity Trump continues to enjoy within the GOP. The former president teased another White House bid in 2024, while also positioning himself as the king of the Republican Party in the 2022 midterm elections.
Haley has often tried to walk a fine line between an alliance with Trump and distance enough to address his more moderate critics. Notably, she left his government on good terms with him in 2018, unlike many other officials, who have publicly argued with their former boss.
But some of her harshest criticism of Trump has come in recent months, after the January 6 uprising.
“We have to admit that he has let us down,” Haley told Politico magazine in an interview published in February. “He’s on a path he shouldn’t have followed, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we must never let that happen again. ‘

Asked how Trump should be held accountable, Haley replied at the time, “I think he will find himself increasingly isolated.”

“I think his company is suffering at this point. I think he’s lost every kind of political viability he would have. I think he’s lost his social media, which meant a lot to him,” she told Politico . “I mean, I think he’s lost the things that really could have kept him moving.”

But Haley hit a different tone about Trump on Monday, specifically defending his recent comments about top Republican leaders.

During a Republican National Committee donor retreat on Saturday night, the former president echoed known lies about the 2020 election and insulted Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a person in the chamber told CNN.

“I think former President Trump has always had a mind of his own,” Haley said at the press conference when asked about Trump’s comments.

Just because he left as president, it doesn’t stop. But I think whatever he talked about was all the success he had in government. And I think that’s what the Republicans are rallying on. ‘

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