As the most prominent representative of the staggered but still standing anti-Trump faction of the GOP, Nikki Haley held a measure of power in the Republican Party. Bowed but unbroken, those old-school Republicans still walk among us — fiscal and social conservatives who believe that Donald Trump is a gaping wound in the gut of the Republic, an autocrat, scoundrel, and insurrectionist whose modus operandi places him far beneath the dignity of the office of President of the United States.
Not as noisy as MAGA, those Republicans were quietly — and consistently — going to the primaries long after Haley had quit the presidential race and voting for her. In some states, even after Haley had ghosted, she received 20 percent or more of the votes.
Those Haley votes are more aptly described as votes against Trump, since a vote for Haley, who was no longer a candidate, was in essence only a message of resistance. Inside the GOP then, a divided party by almost any standard, Haley played an important role — she was, even as an electoral dropout, the standard-bearer for Republican resistance to Trump, a palatable if imperfect choice for Republicans who do not want a Commander-in-Thief.
Q: Would you be disappointed if Haley endorses Trump?
Haley voter: If she does, I’ll vote Democrat. That’s all there is to it pic.twitter.com/TDjIGnw8Jq
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) May 22, 2024
Yesterday, Haley gave all that power back. In a speech at the conservative Hudson Institute, which hired her in April, Haley said she would vote for Trump in November, despite her reservations, joining other former Trump antagonists like former Attorney General Bill Barr in laying down her sword.
Haley’s “vote” was pitched as coming “short of an endorsement” of Trump, a distinction that splits hairs on semantics since a vote is a de facto endorsement. Over at The Bulwark, writer Andrew Eggers compiled a list of Haley’s criticisms of Trump — from the past few months alone — that would seem to make her vote for him an impossible ethical choice. Here are just a few of the bullets:
“If you are going to hit our military, you are not qualified to be president, period.”
“If you mock the service of a combat veteran, you don’t deserve a driver’s license, let alone being president of the United States.”
“Trump just sided with a thug who kills his political opponents. He just sided with a man who goes and arrests American journalists and holds them hostage. He sided with him over the allies who stood with us at 9/11.”
“He said that he would stand with Putin and encourage him to invade our allies . . . Trump would side with a dictator who kills his political opponents . . . Trump is going to side with a madman who’s made no bones about the fact he wants to destroy America.”
“This is a man that put us $8 trillion in debt.”
Trump even knocked Haley’s husband for his absenteeism, caused in fact by his military service overseas, a criticism about which Haley said: “Every bit of it is disgusting. To sit there and mock my husband for not being with me on the campaign trail because he is deployed and serving our country.”
Haley has since concluded that Trump (“not qualified to be president, period”) is worthy of her vote. And while numerous former Trump insiders including former VP Mike Pence (so far) remain resistant to Trump’s authoritarian pitch to voters, the cratering of that resistance is most evident in Haley’s reluctant but inevitable capitulation.
Because with Haley gone to the MAGA side, she not only casts her vote, but also casts out the swaths of Republicans who voted for her, leaving them no vessel for their discontent.