Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, has announced that she is running for president on the Republican ticket for the 2024 election.

While Trump’s popularity has seemed to fade with some, a majority of Republican voters don’t really want to go back to the days of an establishment Republican figure.

You could argue that Trump and DeSantis both promote establishment policies in their own way, but these two are generally opposed by the establishment figures in Washington DC who seek to maintain the status quo.

Trump or DeSantis is by far the most likely outcome right now for the Republican nomination. Maybe Haley is hoping they will tear each other apart, but I don’t think it will matter.

It’s hard to say what Nikki Haley’s positioning is here. Is she just trying to take Trump down a notch for the establishment? Is she hoping to play somewhat nice and have Trump pick her as a running mate? Or is she hoping to actually win the nomination and the presidency?

I haven’t been impressed at all with Trump lately. Depending on what happens from now until the election, I may or may not vote for him as the lesser of two evils. I will more likely vote for Dave Smith.

I can absolutely declare that if Trump picks Nikki Haley as his running mate in the VP slot, there is no chance I will vote for that ticket.

Don’t Let Her Looks Fool You

Nikki Haley is an attractive woman. When she speaks, she seems down to earth. She seems like a decent person if you don’t actually pay attention to what she is saying.

The problem is that she is a bloodthirsty war hawk. She would be one of the worst possible people to have as president if you want a peaceful foreign policy.

That is the number one issue that the president has the most control over, and it is the one issue where she is absolutely clear. She is a total interventionist, and she will not hesitate to use the military to carry out her goals.

On other issues, she is mostly bland and predictable. She will occasionally say a few good things about the free market, but you can take it to the bank that her number one obsession is foreign policy, and not in a good way.

Haley wouldn’t be capable of being a fiscal conservative because any spending cut domestically would be put to use to bomb and invade other countries.

The few times I’ve heard her speak since announcing her presidential run, everything she says is fluff. It is mostly platitudes. And the only place where she is clear is that she is a war hawk through and through.

Parts of the establishment and the left will criticize her, but not in the way they criticize Trump. Most of the left is accepting of her foreign policy as long as they don’t have Trump. She would be perfectly acceptable to the establishment as the next president. Even Fox News is being quite generous in their coverage of her.

Why Did She Oppose Trump?

Let’s remember back before 2016 when Trump was running for the Republican nomination. Nikki Haley was a critic of Trump.

She opposed him for similar reasons as many other establishment Republicans opposed Trump. She didn’t like his foreign policy ideas. She thought Trump might actually pursue a more peaceful foreign policy.

But once Trump got the nomination and his popularity showed with the Republicans outside of DC, she cozied up to him. It is much the same way that many others did, such as Lindsey Graham and John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.

Trump stupidly appointed her to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Why did Trump feel like he owed her anything? Could he have not found anyone else to take the job?

Nikki Haley’s presence actually just reminds me of how ineffectual Trump was as president. He stupidly surrounded himself with people who originally opposed him. Why didn’t he surround himself with the people who supported his campaign from the very beginning?

Nikki Haley was never an ally with Trump. She just played the game. And now she is running for president against the man who appointed her to her last major job.

I hope she falls flat on her face. Her foreign policy views should be shunned by every libertarian. She is so bad on foreign policy, it doesn’t even matter what her other views are.

It will be interesting to see how Trump deals with her. We all know that Trump just can’t ignore her. Anyway, I would rather see Trump attacking Nikki Haley than DeSantis at this point.

Trump needs to play his cards right here. He obviously shouldn’t go after her physical appearance in any way. He needs a good nickname for her that spells out the fact that she is a war hawk. She can be “Bloodthirsty Nikki”. Or maybe “Nikki the War Maker”. It would be the truth.