Nikki Haley, who during the GOP primary warned that having Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee would be “like suicide for our country,” claimed Tuesday that she strongly supports his bid—”for the sake of our nation.”
Walking onto the Republican National Convention stage to a mixture of applause and boos, Haley immediately sought to gloss over her past criticisms of the former president, in whose administration she served as United Nations ambassador.
“My fellow Republicans: President Trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity. It was a gracious invitation, and I was happy to accept,” she began.
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“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear. Donald Trump has my strong endorsement. Period,” she stated, as Trump rose to applaud.
“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. If we have four more years of Biden—or a single day of Harris—our country will be badly worse off,” she argued. “For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.”
Haley then acknowledged portions of the electorate who may not be sold on a Trump-Vance ticket.
“There are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100 percent of the time. I happen to know some of them. And I want to speak to them tonight,” she said.
“My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him. Take it from me. I haven’t always agreed with President Trump. But we agree more often than we disagree. We agree on keeping America strong, we agree on keeping America safe, and we agree that Democrats have moved so far to the left that they bring our freedoms in danger.”
Haley was followed on stage by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who also made an ultimately futile attempt to challenge the former president for the 2024 nomination. He too gave a full-throated endorsement.
“Donald Trump has been demonized. He‘s been sued. He‘s been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. We cannot let him down, and we cannot let America down,” he urged.
DeSantis, alluding to Trump’s reaction shortly after last Saturday’s assassination attempt, concluded his speech: “Let‘s heed the call of our party‘s nominee to ‘fight fight, fight’ for these United States.”
