Nikki Haley, who said she would not run if Trump did, announces run for president

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday announced that she is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

As governor, Haley, who has a history of attacking abortion rights and backing efforts to cut funding of Social Security, signed legislation limiting abortion access in South Carolina.

She has repeatedly flip-flopped on whether or not she supports former President Donald Trump, under whom she served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

In a campaign announcement video that pushes many well-worn Republican culture war talking points, and pointedly mentions the need for a “new generation” of leaders, Haley says: “My parents reminded me and my siblings every day how blessed we were to live in America. Some look at our past as evidence that America’s founding principles are bad.”

As references to the New York Times’ “1619 Project” on the centrality of slavery in the country’s national narrative and images of a crowd burning an American flag and of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez speaking at a Bernie Sanders rally appear on the screen, Haley says: “They say the promise of freedom is just made up. Some think our ideas are not just wrong, but racist and evil. Nothing could be further from the truth. … Even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America.”

Referring without mentioning actual names or specifics to white supremacist Dylann Roof’s murder of nine Black people at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015, Haley says, “And when evil did come, we turned away from fear, toward God and the values that still make our country the freest and the greatest in the world.”

Against a photo montage of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Haley says: “Some people look at America and see vulnerability. The socialist left sees an opportunity to rewrite history.” She continues: “China and Russia are on the march. They all think we can be bullied, kicked around. You should know this about me: I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels. I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president.”

Haley is the second prominent Republican to officially launch a campaign, following Trump’s announcement in November.

Haley’s support for Trump has come and gone a number of times.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Haley said of Trump: “I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK. That is not a part of our party. That’s not who we want as president. We will not allow that in our country!”

Before he took office, Trump nominated Haley to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, a position she served from January 2017 through 2018.

After Trump’s second impeachment, following his actions inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, Haley told Politico that Trump had “fallen so far” and that he “went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him.”

In April 2021, her tone shifted again, and she told AP reporter Meg Kinnard that she would support Trump if he ran for president again in 2024: “I would not run if President Trump ran 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.

In October of that year, she told the Wall Street Journal that Trump “has a strong legacy from his administration.”

Haley also claimed in that interview, “There was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction.” She also expressed sympathy for Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, noting: “I understand the president. I understand that genuinely, to his core, he believes he was wronged. This is not him making it up.”

Haley’s own record as governor includes signing a law in 2012 that prevented taxpayer funding of abortion services following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. In 2016, she signed a law banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The law falsely claimed there was “evidence” that fetuses can feel pain by 20 weeks.

After the draft decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade leaked in May 2022, Haley tweeted: “Millions of Americans have prayed for this day. It’s a victory for the most basic right there is – the right to life. Now starts the movement to ensure the people and their elected representatives have the power to support every mother and protect every child across the country.”

The Washington Post reported on Feb. 9 of this year that Haley has previously expressed an interest in changes to Social Security and Medicare that would cut funding for those programs. In 2010 she said she supported a proposal by then-Rep. Paul Ryan calling for the partial privatization of the Medicare system, telling Fox News: “What they need to be doing is looking at entitlements. Look at Social Security. Look at Medicaid. Look at Medicare. Look at these things, and let’s actually go to the heart of what is causing government to grow, and tackle that.”

In an April 2020 tweet, as the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading, Haley said: “The pandemic is expected to weigh on the financial condition of Social Security, which is currently projected to pay benefits that exceed its income in 2021 for the first time in nearly 40 years. Time for Congress to start cutting not spending.”

While serving as Trump’s ambassador to the U.N., Haley took action to back his harsh anti-immigrant positions.

In June 2018, the U.N. Human Rights Council criticized the Trump administration for its policy of separating immigrant children from their families. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the organization’s high commissioner for human rights, called the administration’s actions “unconscionable” and “government-sanctioned child abuse.” A day after his comments, Haley and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the council.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.