Donald Trump WAS the President…..
And YEA…..
He’s a entertainer that gets along with those who ain’t college grads ….
He winks at breaking the Rules and Laws….
And?
He’s a White Guy….
SHE Ain’t….
The stories pile up one after another, of thanks not offered, allies antagonized, opponents not forgiven — a portrait of a politician who climbed the ladder with speed and skill but failed to ensure that the people who helped her would have her back if she needed them.
Now that politician, Nikki Haley, has returned to her home state of South Carolina in desperate need of support in high places to revive her flagging quest for the presidency.
She is finding little of it.
The man who had been her lieutenant governor, Henry McMaster, signed on with Donald J. Trump long ago. The backbench House member she plucked from a crowded field of South Carolina contenders to put into the United States Senate, Tim Scott, endorsed Mr. Trump just days before the crucial New Hampshire primary, and stood behind him Tuesday night as the former president mocked Ms. Haley’s dress.
The congresswoman whose career was rescued from a Trump-backed challenger in 2022 by a timely Haley endorsement, Nancy Mace, has also sided with Mr. Trump, a man she once said needed to be held to account for the riot of Jan. 6, 2021.
“She was good on economic development but not great on cultivating relationships,” Chip Felkel, a longtime Republican political consultant and Trump critic, said of Ms. Haley. “She forgot who helped her get here.”
In the rough-and-tumble politics of South Carolina, the 12 years that Ms. Haley spent as a state representative, then as the youngest governor in the country, were remarkable. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Ms. Haley repeatedly defied expectations as she took on an entrenched old guard in the Deep South. She edged out much better known Republican politicians running first for the legislature, then for governor, and was resoundingly elected to her second term — a rise so meteoric that her campaign sells T-shirts that read “Underestimate Me, That’ll Be Fun.”
Both Ms. Haley and her supporters attribute the hard feelings she left in her wake to jealousy, sexism and the sense that a young woman of color had simply not waited her turn. But for all the talk of South Carolina’s penchant for dirty tricks, the state also values the glad hand. And that was not Ms. Haley’s style….
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In the State House, Ms. Haley resisted the rules of the state’s famously hidebound political club, said Tom Davis, a Republican and one of a small handful of state senators who have endorsed her.
Her campaign to mandate that every vote be on the record, not in backroom deal-making, cost her a seat on a powerful House committee and her position of majority whip in her third term as a legislator, she wrote in a memoir….
…
Mr. Trump has made the most of her isolation. A campaign operative for the former president has paced the state capital of Columbia, lengthening the long list of state officials and legislators in Mr. Trump’s camp.
One political strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from Trump allies and to discuss private conversations with clients, said the message was twofold: The former president could help their political careers if they back him; if they don’t, they should expect no favors….
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“South Carolina likes Nikki Haley, but they love Donald Trump.”…
Haley NOW IS throwing down against Trump…..
Nikki Haley on Friday called Donald J. Trump “totally unhinged” after a failed attempt by one of his allies to push the Republican National Committee to declare him the party’s presumptive nominee, escalating her attacks on his mental acuity.
Ms. Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, cast her onetime boss as increasingly antagonistic during an appearance on Fox News.
“Let’s look at the last 48 hours,” Ms. Haley said, and she went on to assail him over his combative rhetoric in his victory speech Tuesday in New Hampshire.
“He throws an absolute temper tantrum, talking about revenge,” she said. “Then he goes and says that he’s going to ban anyone from MAGA that donates to me.”
“I mean he’s totally unhinged,” she said….
Liz Cheney wants Haley to stay at it till at least Super Tuesday….
Former Representative Liz Cheney urged Nikki Haley to stay in the Republican primary race through Super Tuesday in an episode of “Pod Save America” that will be released on Friday. Ms. Cheney, an outspoken critic of former President Donald J. Trump, called his candidacy an “existential threat” to the nation and commended Ms. Haley for running against him, despite her long odds.
“We need to make sure that we’re challenging him and working to defeat him at every step of the way. And right now, Nikki Haley is in this fight, and I think she ought to stay in it,” Ms. Cheney said…..