Former President Donald Trump called Nikki Haley a “capable person” who would be part of his “team” in his first comments since her surprise revelation that she will vote for him.
On a day when Trump attempted to demonstrate the expansion of his political coalition at a rally in the Bronx, Trump praised Haley, whom he had derided during the campaign as “bird-brained.”
“Well, I think she’s going to be on our team because we have a lot of the same ideas, the same thoughts,” Trump said. said News 12.
‘I appreciate what she said. You know, we had a nasty campaign. It was quite unpleasant. But she is a very capable person and I am sure she will be on our team in some capacity. Absolutely,” Trump said.
Trump spoke on a day in which he touted “unity” in the party, with nearly all of his primary rivals lining up behind him, even as some of them leveled harsh criticism of his political vision and character.
Team-building exercise: Former President Donald Trump said Thursday of Nikki Haley: “Well, I think she’s going to be on our team.”
That includes Haley’s past comments criticizing politicians who bow to pressure.
“Many of the same politicians who now publicly support Trump privately fear him,” he said in Greenville, South Carolina, in February. ‘They know what a disaster it has been and will continue to be for our party. They are simply too afraid to say it out loud.
‘Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud. I don’t feel the need to kiss the ring. I am not afraid of Trump’s retaliation. I’m not looking for anything from him.’
Trump did not mention Haley when asked to name three of his top candidates to be his running mate, although he did name other former critics.
“We have so many that I don’t want to do that,” Trump said, ignoring the question at first. He mentioned Dr. Ben Carson, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator JD Vance and Representative Elise Stefanik.
‘Elise is doing a fantastic job. But she could go on for quite some time. “We have a lot of people who would do a really fantastic job.”
Halely announced Wednesday that she would vote for Trump. She said in February that she “don’t feel the need to kiss the ring.”
Trump says he plans to win New York and has seen increased support in polls among black and Hispanic voters compared to 2016.
Trump had ridiculed Carson in 2016 for his origin story and then put him in the Cabinet. He insulted Rubio by calling him ‘little Marco’ when they confronted each other. “OMG, what an idiot,” Vance tweeted in 2016, though he is now a loyal supporter who has been hosting fundraisers for Trump in Silicon Valley. Stefanik once criticized Trump’s comments about Muslims in the 2016 campaign, but this week he filed an ethics complaint against the judge overseeing Stormy Daniels’ trial.
Haley was Trump’s last Republican challenger in 2024 and has garnered millions of ‘zombie’ votes even after dropping out of the race, giving Trump an incentive to try to woo her supporters.
She urged him to do so Wednesday in her comments to the Hudson Institute, which she later published.
‘I don’t know what Nikki’s calculations are. I hope she’s not thinking about being her vice president,” said former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, who came out as a critic of Trump in a book after he left the administration. cnn.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who denounced Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 and ended his own presidential campaign before Iowa, has said he will not endorse Trump but declined to answer questions about whether he would vote for him.
Trump stuck to his message in an interview Thursday with Fox News. “I appreciate what he said,” Trump said, as he said he was unifying the party.