Nikki Haley Gives ‘Strong Endorsement’ for Donald Trump 5 Months After Saying He’s ‘Not Qualified’ for Presidency

View gallery

Image Credit: Getty Images

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley threw her support behind former President Donald Trump in his 2024 election campaign on Tuesday, July 16. After Haley ran against Trump in a bid for the Republican nomination, she’s now pledged her support to the former president. The comments made on social media explained her reasoning, but they went against claims she made against Trump on the campaign trail.

Haley explained that she believed that Trump is a stronger choice than President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear. Donald Trump has my strong endorsement,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Our country is at a critical moment. We have a choice to make. For more than a year, I said a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris. After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true.”

I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear.  Donald Trump has my strong endorsement. 

 

Our country is at a critical moment.  We have a choice to make.  For more than a year, I said a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris.  After seeing the debate, everyone…

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) July 17, 2024

Haley continued and she tried to appeal to voters who may not agree with Trump on every policy. She also called for unity among the Republican party. “I haven’t always agreed with President Trump.  But we agree far more often than we disagree,” she said.

Of course, Haley’s comments come not very long after she was coming after Trump during her run for president. She had previously called the Republican candidate “unstable and unhinged” during campaign events. Back in February, she said that Trump was “not qualified to be the President of the United States.”

Haley suspended her campaign for president in March. She was the last candidate still in the race, and her dropping out made Trump the presumptive Republican candidate. As she dropped out, she called on the former president to earn the votes of the party’s members. “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” she said, via The Associated Press. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.”