Former President Donald Trump, who has grown spiritual after surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday, seemingly is embracing one core religious tenet: forgiveness.
On Sunday, Trump called his onetime rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and asked her to speak on Tuesday at this week’s Republican National Convention, according to Bloomberg.
Until Trump dropped his grudge, Haley was set to be the most conspicuous of names excluded from the GOP confab, which began Monday in Milwaukee, drawing the MAGA faithful to a four-day nominating contest that has morphed into a revival following their party leader’s near-death experience. Nearly every other prominent Republican was scheduled to be a headliner, including other former rivals such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who made Trump’s shortlist of potential vice presidential picks before Trump settled on Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
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Haley spokesperson Chaney Denton told Politico last week that the former governor “was not invited, and she’s fine with that. Trump deserves the convention he wants. She’s made it clear she’s voting for him and wishes him the best.”
After announcing she would vote for Trump in May, Haley told her delegates last Tuesday that they should back him at the convention. But it appears to have taken Trump coming within an inch of losing his life—as well as a unity strategy charted by his top advisers Sunday morning—to bring Haley back into the fold.
“Haley coming around just shows more unity for the GOP at the time where Dems are calling for their nominee to step aside,” a Trumpworld GOP strategist told the Daily Beast.
No love has been lost between the two Republican heavyweights. As she rose in the polls late last year, the Trump campaign switched from attacking “DeSanctimonious” to slamming Haley, who Trump dubbed “Birdbrain.” During primary season, as Trump’s opponents dropped out and endorsed him one-by-one, Haley soldiered on.
In the Iowa barns where Haley supporters gathered and among moderate New Hampshire independents, many Republicans saw her as their last hope of avoiding the total Trumpification of the GOP.
When Haley spoke about Trump last December, it was clear she was choosing her words carefully. “I believe Donald Trump was the right president at the right time; I agree with a lot of his policies,” she said, adding, “Rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. We can’t have a country in disarray in a world on fire, and be dealing with four years of chaos. We won’t survive it.”
Survival, miracles and absolution are now a major themes at this week’s GOP convention after Trump’s near miss at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire in the former president’s direction, killing one attendee and gravely injuring two others. Trump has told conservative media outlets that he’s “supposed to be dead” and “I’m not supposed to be here” in describing what he has suggested may have been divine intervention.
As her odds looked longer and longer early this year, Haley grew more vocal. In January, she said, “I absolutely trust the jury,” in response to an order that Trump had to pay more than $83 million in damages for defamation of E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of sexual assault. In February, Haley told The Wall Street Journal that Trump’s legal baggage made his nomination “like suicide for our country.”
Even before her bid, Haley and Trump had a tumultuous relationship. Back in 2016, she said Trump was “everything a governor doesn’t want in a president” before ultimately coming around to support him and becoming his ambassador to the United Nations. After Jan. 6, 2021, she foretold the end of his political career, saying: “We need to acknowledge he let us down.” And after promising not to challenge Trump if he ran, she did so anyway.
Denton, Halye’s spokesperson, did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment about the former governor’s conversation with Trump, what prompted the switch-up, and what she planned to say in her speech.
Trump’s invitation followed Haley’s well-wishes Saturday evening, when she posted on social media: “This should horrify every freedom loving American. Violence against presidential candidates must never be normalized. We are lifting up Donald Trump, the entire Trump family, and all in attendance in prayer.”
