After her criticism, Trump takes shots at SC’s Nikki Haley in new Vanity Fair interview
During a Vanity Fair interview on the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald Trump took a shot at his former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
“Well, every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later,” Trump told Vanity Fair. “I guess she gets the base.”
Trumps comment comes as political observers speculate about which Republicans will run for president in 2024. Former South Carolina Gov. Haley is a frequent name dropped during those discussions.
Haley and Trump have had an up-and-down relationship since Haley resigned from her job as ambassador to the U.N. October 2018, after less than two years in the position. Haley said she resigned because she wanted Trump to have “the strongest person to fight.”
“It has been an honor of a lifetime,” she said. “You know, I said I am such a lucky girl to have been able to lead the state that raised me and to serve a country I love so very much. It has really been a blessing and I want to thank you for that.”
After leaving the Trump administration, it was rare to see Haley criticize the former president. She’s also deferred to Trump when it comes to the 2024 presidential race, saying she wouldn’t run if he threw his hat in.
“I would not run if President Trump ran,” Haley said in April. “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. I had a great working relationship with him. I appreciated the way he let me do my job.”
Haley’s tone toward the former president changed significantly after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, where Trump supporters fresh from the president’s rally stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress certified the election win for President Joe Biden. However, she was far from being consistent.
On the day of the riot, Haley at first struck a softer tone and didn’t directly criticize Trump.
“Every American has the right to peacefully protest. What’s happening right now at the U.S. Capitol building is wrong and un-American,” Haley tweeted. “We are better than that.”
But the next day, during a speech at the Republican National Committee meeting in Florida, Haley took shots at the then-president.
“He was badly wrong with his words yesterday. And it wasn’t just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history,” Haley said.
But in late January, Haley said Trump deserved “a break” and criticized Democrats for impeaching him for the Jan. 6 riots during an interview on Fox News.
Then, weeks later, Haley was back on the attack. In a February interview with Politico, Haley said Republicans “need to acknowledge he (Trump) let us down.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 12:30 PM.
