Nikki Haley's Calculating, Conditional Courage and Lasting Cowardice

In an interview with Politico conducted on January 12th but published a month later, Nikki Haley, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2016 to 2018, said of Donald Trump and his efforts to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election,  "We need to acknowledge (Trump) let us down. He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

In the same interview she said of Trump’s behavior after November 3rd, “His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history” and said of Trump’s treatment of his Vice President, “When I tell you I’m angry, it’s an understatement. Mike has been nothing but loyal to that man. He’s been nothing but a good friend of that man. … I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I’m disgusted by it.”

When the interviewer mentioned that part of the reason Trump was being impeached an unprecedented second time, she boldly predicted, “He’s not going to run for federal office again. I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”

They have fun!

At the time it was seen by some as a major break with the disgraced ex-president. Here a major supporter who managed to serve in Trump’s administration for two years and left on good terms was flat-out stating that Trump let his followers down, that he led them down a wrong, bad path and that as a consequence he should never be in a position to do so again. 

Haley was furthermore saying that she was disgusted by the way Trump treated his Vice President and that Trump would not run for president again, that he fundamentally couldn’t run for president because he had fallen so far. 

These words and ideas were uttered in a very specific cultural context, when Trump was at his lowest following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, the failed insurrection of January 6th, de-platforming (most notably from Twitter) and SECOND impeachment. 

So Haley gambled that Trump had, indeed, fallen too far to be a feasible presidential candidate for 2024. Haley assumed, understandably, that Trump was so radioactive and so toxic to Democrats, Republicans and independents alike that even a cowardly and insane Republican Party that worshipped Trump like a God when his actions proved he was sub-human would be willing, even eager to break up with him permanently, over his unsuccessful attempts to steal the presidency. 

At the time Haley’s words struck me as the cold calculation of someone prepared to take them back at the first opportunity if they hurt her standing in a rabidly pro-Trump Republican Party or diminished her chances of becoming President. 

I was not wrong! If you’re cynical enough about people or politics you seldom are. 

Haley is unsurprisingly singing a different song now. Not only does Trump remain in the picture, despite not doing anything other than marinating in bitterness and resentment and letting ambitious young Republicans kiss the ring of power down at Mar-A-Lago, but these days he’s the ONLY THING IN THE PICTURE when it comes to the 2024 Republican presidential race. 

So a pragmatist who earlier stated assertively of Trump, “He’s not going to run for federal office again. I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far” has stated that should Trump run for President in 2024 OF COURSE she will support him. 

Why wouldn’t she? He’s the only thing standing between us and hardcore Marxism!

That’s because a 78 year old, twice-impeached Trump, who is personally responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands through his mismanagement of COVID-19 and has been defeated soundly in the popular vote for president twice would have such a stranglehold on the hearts and minds of Republicans that he would be unbeatable. 

The Republican Party is so weak and pathetic that seemingly nothing Trump can do, no matter how bad or hurtful or mindlessly destructive, can affect his status as its all-powerful God. 

So even Republicans who have experimented with criticizing Trump’s most egregious actions in the past find themselves lining up to support him in theoretical future presidential races. 

The only thing that can keep Trump from getting the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 would be if he dies within the next three years, and even then, I suspect his cultists would try to get his ghost elected president. 

Haley’s “bravery” in criticizing Trump was calculating and temporary. Her cowardice in supporting a 2024 run, however, is enduring and shameful even by contemporary Republican standards.

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