Nikki Haley Has Publicly Dissed Donald Trump More Than Once
If Nikki Haley and Donald Trump were lovers, you could probably categorize them as having an erratic, on-again, off-again relationship. They went from close political allies, notably when Trump appointed Haley as his inaugural United Nations ambassador in 2017, to rivals in the 2024 presidential race. Haley ditched the ambassadorship post in 2018, with Trump praising her work, but since then, their relationship has been wishy-washy. The two routinely blast each other in public spaces, and Haley is especially critical of Trump, not mincing her words when slamming the former president she served under.
Interestingly, Haley's critical stance on Trump started even before her tenure in his administration. She notably opposed Trump's proposed Muslim ban during his 2015 visit to South Carolina, denouncing it as "absolutely un-American" (via CNN). A few months later, she also expressed apprehension about supporting Trump in the 2016 presidential race, saying he's "everything a governor doesn't want in a president," only to endorse him in the 2020 elections, as noted by CBS News.
Now, after the infamous Capitol Riots, Haley has only upped the ante in her critique of Trump, sparing no effort to spotlight his flaws. Not only did she publicly say that he was not fit to be a leader, but she also branded him as the most unpopular politician in the country.
Haley called Trump 'the most disliked politician in America'
Donald Trump may be Nikki Haley's former boss, but that didn't stop her from verbally bulldozing him in the 2024 presidential primaries. In an interview on "The Breakfast Club," Haley proved that she's the master of shading Trump and refused to hold back when blasting her opponent, telling host Charlamagne tha God that Trump has changed the political landscape for the worse and that he's no longer suited to be the leader of the free world at any point in the future.
"He's made it chaotic. He's made it self-absorbed. He's made people dislike and judge each other," Haley declared. "He's left that a president should have moral clarity, and know the difference between right or wrong, and he's just toxic." She also conceded that Trump might have kickstarted the process of amending some policies, and she pointed out that his efforts often stopped short of yielding productive outcomes. "I think a lot of the things he broke needed to be broken, but he doesn't know how to fix things again, and it's not okay to just break you got to fix it, make it better. And he hasn't done that," she added.
Haley didn't stop there. While Trump has become the presumptive nominee for the Republican party, she doesn't think that the country wants him to lead again. "Americans don't want a rematch between Trump and Biden," she said during the GOP debate (via People). "And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can't win a general election that way."
Thats not all she had to say about the former president
Nikki Haley is aware that some of her supporters have questioned her previous affiliation with Donald Trump, and it's not something she has denied outright. However, she wants to make it clear to everyone that the Trump she knew and supported back then isn't the same as the Trump now. Per Haley, her old boss has changed, and not for the better.
"The problem now is he is not the same person he was in 2016," she told NBC News. "He is unhinged; he is more diminished than he was... This is a fact: He is now saying things that don't make sense," she said, alluding to Trump's odd behavior during his campaign. "He's more unhinged than he ever was. And why are we settling for that when the country is in disarray and the world is on fire?"
Even as she bowed out of the presidential race in March 2024, Haley couldn't resist throwing a bit of shade Trump's way. Tradition typically calls for an endorsement of the party's frontrunner, but Haley opted for a different route. Instead, she suggested that if Trump wanted the support of her base, he'd better work for it. "It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him," Haley said. "And I hope he does that."