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Over the holiday break, I filed a report on the burgeoning #NeverNikki movement in MAGA-land. This movement consists of key allies and advisors to former U.S. president Donald Trump who are seeking to convince him not to put his former United Nations’ ambassador (and top 2024 rival) Nikki Haley on the national ticket as his vice presidential nominee.
As Trump mulls his options, the pushback to Haley is escalating. That makes sense considering we are now less than two weeks away from the first votes being cast in the Iowa caucus – and considering Trump remains heavily favored to win all three critical early-voting states. But the pushback is also understandable for another key reason: Trump putting Haley on the ticket makes perfect political sense.
On the surface, Trump would be a fool not to offer the vice presidency to the former South Carolina governor – and not just because she’s a woman and he’s a man. Or because she’s a minority and he’s not. Or because she’s a quarter century younger than he is. No, the beauty of selecting Haley at No. 2 is that she has the potential – some might say the unique potential – to create a true GOP unity ticket. Her hypothetical selection could help Trump achieve the sort of ideological balance necessary to achieve full spectrum support among the increasingly fractured Republican electorate.
That would mean pivotal swing states already in play for Trump could become virtual locks … on paper, anyway.
No wonder Trump was reportedly “asking allies and advisers for their thoughts about Nikki Haley as a potential vice presidential candidate” in the days leading up to Christmas, according to CBS News.
The problem? No one trusts Haley … or for that matter some of the very dangerous people who are propping her up (and making her rich). Let me be clear: I’m not saying they don’t trust that Haley wouldn’t stab Trump in the back politically, I’m saying they don’t trust that she (and her backers) wouldn’t actually stab him. Like, literally.
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On the periodic table of the elements, Nh is Nihonium, a synthetic, highly-radioactive chemical element. In politics, Nh is Nikki Haley – raw ambition in its purest, most undiluted form. This element is also highly radioactive (assuming we follow her bellicose foreign policy through to its logical conclusion).
Nonetheless, Haley has managed to contort herself into a position in which two seemingly impossible, contradictory objectives have been simultaneously achieved. First, she is well on her way to consolidating the #NeverTrump/ non-Trump factions of the GOP behind her presidential candidacy. Second, she has not only avoided becoming persona non grata with Trump in the process, she’s actually being courted by him behind the scenes.
She’s played successfully to the constituency of #NeverTrump voters – and to the “constituency of one” in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
It wasn’t always pretty – and it sure as hell wasn’t consistent – but since announcing her candidacy eleven months ago, Haley has somehow tip-toed through the Trump minefield like a ballerina twirling betwixt the raindrops. There have been plenty of stumbles, to be sure, but no fatal detonations. Even after her February 2023 announcement was panned by the pundits, Haley not only persevered – she began picking up momentum (and amassing critical institutional support) when it mattered most.
Will her latest “surge” be enough to push her over the top against Trump? Probably not … but the fact that pundits are seriously considering that question is a testament to her trademark “sticktuitiveness.” As we noted in the latest edition of the Palmetto Political Stock Index, the one political promise Haley has been able to keep is the one in which she vowed no one would ever out-work her.
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While the Haley presidential calculus remains a long-shot, her vice presidential positioning couldn’t be better.
Still, as I noted last week, Trump’s consideration of Haley for this role remains a “non-starter” among some of his key backers including Tucker Carlson (who referred to Haley as “poison” and vowed to campaign against any ticket with her on it ) and Donald Trump Jr. (who called Haley a “puppet” and vowed to “go to great lengths” to keep his father from choosing her).
We can now add former Trump chief strategist and influential conservative commentator Steve Bannon to the #NeverNikki list. During a conversation with Jack Posobiec of Human Events, Bannon sounded a dire warning about Haley – and about the efforts which would be required if conservatives want to be successful in blocking her from becoming vice president.
“We’re going to have a big fight – (it) will take place in the spring,” Bannon told Posobiec. “They’re going to try to force Nikki on the ticket, to say Trump needs a woman, (put) Nikki on the ticket – she balances things and she can bring together that fifteen percent of #NeverTrumpers in the Republican Party. We’re gonna have to have that fight.”
“If Nikki Haley is in this administration in any capacity, it will fail,” Bannon added. “She’s a viper. She’s a viper and once she gets in there she’ll try to run it as prime minister.”
Posobiec took it a step further, echoing assertions made last month by self-styled “People’s Pundit” Rich Baris – who believes that Trump choosing Haley as vice president would ultimately lead to his assassination by the deep state.
“They will find someone to Lee Harvey Oswald (Trump).” Posobiec said, referring to the alleged assassin of president John F. Kennedy.
All of this, of course, leads to the real reason the MAGA movement is up in arms over Haley’s potential vice presidential selection: By now it should be abundantly clear to everyone that Trump is seriously considering it.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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2 comments
Vice President Birdbrain.
Very dignified.
Interesting. Assuming Trump picks Haley and they win, she would be the only other South Carolinian to hold the Vice Presidency since John C. Calhoun, perhaps best known for his defense of states’ rights and slavery. (sound familiar?) Calhoun, VP under Adams and then Jackson, was also only one of two persons who resigned the office. Among other reasons was because he couldn’t get along with Andrew Jackson. (Not to say that history never repeats itself)