It’s long been rumored that, if Donald Trump wins the GOP presidential nomination for a third time, he’ll pick a woman as his running mate. If he does, don’t expect that woman to be one of his primary opponents — at least if Donald Trump Jr. has anything to say about it.
In an interview with Newsmax, Trump Jr. said he’d “go to great lengths” to ensure former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley would stay off the ticket, arguing that her tendencies toward globalism and American interventionism in foreign conflicts would make her untenable.
This is the second interview Trump Jr. has given this month in which he slagged Haley as a puppet of the establishment meant to end his father’s career.
In the latest salvo in Haley’s direction, which came during an interview with Eric Bolling on the day after Christmas, Trump Jr. said that he “wouldn’t have her” as a veep candidate.
🚨Donald Trump Jr, Draws A Red Line With Nikki Haley As VP
“I wouldn’t have her and I would go to great lengths to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” he told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling in a recent interview
“Nikki Haley wants never-ending wars. She’s a puppet of the establishment… pic.twitter.com/aRRfwtUV4J
— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) December 27, 2023
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“Nikki Haley wants never-ending wars,” Trump Jr. said.
“She’s a puppet of the establishment in Washington, D.C. She’s the new favorite candidate of the billionaire class because they want control — no different than academia and Harvard and using their billions to exercise influence.”
“She is now the preferred candidate,” he added.
Should Haley be Trump’s running mate?
This comes after an interview with Breitbart earlier this month, after the last Republican primary debate, in which Trump Jr. said Vivek Ramaswamy “basically ended Nikki Haley’s political career.”
“The same people that used to support DeSantis because they thought he was the guy to take out Trump, so that they can have their dancing monkey in the White House — someone who needs them, who needs their dollars — they flipped over to Nikki Haley, and they’re trying to make that the last hope, so that they can have that kind of control,” he said.
“It’s really sad because that’s what this is about.”
Others in Trump’s orbit have criticized Haley for the same reasons — including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who said in an interview with conservative personality Tim Pool that he’d actively campaign against a Trump-Haley ticket.
“I would not only not vote for that ticket, I would advocate against it as strongly as I could,” Carlson said earlier this week. “That’s just poison.”
He went on to say that Haley was “someone who’s actively opposed to the interests of the country I grew up in, who endorsed the BLM riots and who is not left but is neoliberal in the darkest, most … nihilistic way and has no real popular support, is a creature of the oligarchs. So yeah, that would be — that would be reason to oppose the ticket.”
However, there are those in Trump’s orbit who support the former South Carolina governor — namely his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who said that Haley’s nomination was in the “never say never” zone:
NEW: Lara Trump seems to suggest that Nikki Haley could become Trump’s VP pick.
This is a terrible idea.
During an interview with Eric Bolling, Lara Trump said “never say never” about the possibility of Haley becoming Trump’s VP pick.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has since responded… pic.twitter.com/kCeVnN0zLd
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 13, 2023
There is, of course, a better argument against Nikki Haley than interventionism, globalism or moderate-ism, assuming Donald Trump is the nominee. For the most part, the 2024 Republican presidential race is a referendum on Trump and being in it necessarily implies you’re voting no on the four years of his presidency, for whatever reason.
Vivek Ramaswamy has come the closest to moving away from this, arguing that, while Trump’s presidency was productive, he antagonizes a wide swath of undecided voters. Pretty much everyone else has either made it clear — albeit not in direct terms, unless you’re a fringe contender like Chris Christie or Asa Hutchinson — that their candidacy would reject a Trump-ist populism and take the country in a different direction.
If she wins the nomination on that premise, great. More power to her. Vox populi, vox elephanti. However, if one runs on that premise — unless it’s much, much closer than polls at the moment indicate — one shouldn’t turn around and expect to get the vice presidential nomination. It wouldn’t be prudent for either person’s political future. And, not only that, it’d make for some uncomfortable back-and-forths with the first son should a Trump-Haley ticket manage to retake the White House.
