WASHINGTON—After months of declining to endorse her former boss, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley announced on May 22 that she will be voting for former President Donald Trump.
“I put my priorities on a president who’s going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border,” she said during a conversation at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank where she is now the Walter P. Stern Chair.
It was Ms. Haley’s first public appearance since suspending her presidential campaign in March.
“No more excuses,” she said. “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’ve made that clear many, many times.
“But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump.”
Nonetheless, Ms. Haley reiterated a key point that she made in her March speech announcing the end of her campaign.
“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him,” she said. “And I genuinely hope he does that.”
President Trump has said that Ms. Haley is not under consideration to be his running mate but that he wishes “her well.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who was the first member of Congress and one of the few lawmakers to endorse Ms. Haley, celebrated Ms. Haley’s coming out in support of President Trump.
“Great news. I’m excited about what she’s doing,” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Norman said he has been telling President Trump to pick Ms. Haley as his running mate because, despite suspending her campaign, Ms. Haley has continued to amass a sizable portion of votes in the GOP primaries, especially in key states such as Michigan.
“You can hate Nikki Haley, but you can’t hate her voters,” he said.
Last week, Ms. Haley notched 20 percent of the vote in the Maryland Republican primary and 18 percent in Nebraska. Earlier this month, she won 22 percent in the Indiana GOP primary.
President Trump has dismissed the continued support for Ms. Haley, saying those voters will ultimately cast their votes for him in November.
“She got very few voters,” President Trump said in early May. “And those voters are all coming to me, and you may have a lot of Democrats in there because they have a very tricky little system. But those voters are coming to me.”
Reacting to Ms. Haley’s announcement, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch Trump supporter, said, “Just because she endorsed him doesn’t mean that we will ever endorse her thinking.”
Ms. Haley’s hawkish foreign policy views have drawn pushback from some conservatives, such as Ms. Greene.
During her campaign, Ms. Haley said President Trump was “not qualified” to be back in the Oval Office.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Trump campaign for comment but received none by press time.
In her speech at the Hudson Institute, Ms. Haley rebuked President Biden, the Democrat Party, and the GOP regarding foreign policy.
Ms. Haley decried Democrats’ response to the war between Israel and Hamas. She cited President Biden’s decision to withhold bombs and munitions to the Jewish state over his concerns about Israel using them in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where the last remaining Hamas battalions are believed to be operating.
She also criticized President Biden’s response to the war in Ukraine, blaming him for not sending Kyiv what they needed.
Ms. Haley warned that China is watching how the United States responds to the war in Ukraine and that it will either deter or encourage Beijing to invade Taiwan.
She also turned her criticism to members of her own party, condemning Republicans who say that the border should be secured before dealing with other issues, such as foreign entanglements. Ms. Haley concurred with the need to address the border crisis, but she said that the United States needs to address its issues, both foreign and domestic, simultaneously.
Were the United States to deal with issues one by one, it would allow its enemies to get stronger and make the fight to defeat them more difficult, she said.
