John Jefferson
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley detailed her long and complicated history with Donald Trump during an episode of her new Sirius XM radio show Nikki Haley Live on Wednesday.
“On this show, you’re not going to hear me say glowing things about Donald Trump’s personality. I have issues with him, as well,” Haley said. “I have not forgotten what he said about me. I’ve not forgotten what he said about my husband or his, you know, deployment time or his military service. I haven’t forgotten about his and his campaign’s tactics from, you know, putting a bird cage outside our hotel room to calling me ‘bird brain.”’
Despite serving in the Trump administration, Haley has had an often-times contentious relationship with the former president.
During the 2024 primary campaign, Haley challenged Trump, and the former president often insulted her in return, calling her “bird brain” and making light of her husband’s military deployment.
Haley wasn’t afraid to go after Trump either, arguing both he and Joe Biden were too old to still be in the running, and calling for mental competency tests for politicians above age 75.
That disdain continued during Wednesday’s broadcast, where Haley reiterated her reservations about both men.
“If I thought either one of those candidates were great, I wouldn’t have run for office,” she said.
Still, despite her issues with Trump, Haley endorsed her rival in July during the Republican National Convention.
“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” she told the crowd.
“I know there are people out there who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100 percent. I happen to know some of them,” Haley added. “I want to talk to them tonight. My message is simple: You don’t have to agree with Donald Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him.”
The stance earned her the ire of other Republicans who have criticized Donald Trump, including former congresswoman Liz Cheney, who broke party ranks and endorsed Kamala Harris.
“I can’t understand her position on this in any kind of a principled way,” Cheney said.
“I think that the things that she said, that she made clear when she was running in the primary, those things are true,” she continued. “Those of us who have fidelity to the Constitution, have a responsibility and a duty to recognize [that] this is not about partisan politics.”
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