No sooner had she announced her candidacy for the presidency of 2024 than the insults flew. On CNN, Nikki Haley was criticized for no longer being “of the first youth” and, on MSNBC, a left-wing channel, for using “her brown color to camouflage the arguments of white supremacists”. Ann Coulter, a very right-wing commentator, for her part launched: “Why don’t you go back to your country?”, before making fun of India where “we love cows” while “everyone world is starving”.
At 51, Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the UN is the first Republican to dare to challenge the former president. It does not lack assets. Starting with an American dream biography. This daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab grew up in a small town in South Carolina. “We didn’t fit into any category,” she wrote in her memoir, because the family was neither white nor black. The young Nikki studied accounting, then, after her marriage to a soldier (and her conversion to Protestantism), was elected in 2004 to the local Congress. Six years later, at age 38, she won the governorship. A feat in this very conservative state.
“Nikki Haley is charismatic, positive and very gifted politically”, summarizes Danielle Vinson, professor of political sciences at the university of Furman. In 2015, she became famous by having the Confederate flag, a symbol associated with racist causes, removed from the seat of Parliament in Columbia. She had previously opposed this measure, before changing her mind after the massacre of nine blacks by a neo-Nazi in a temple in Charleston.
His goal: to attract the disenchanted with Donald Trump
This mother can above all boast of an impeccable CV. During the 2016 election, she violently attacked candidate Trump. It represents, she says, “everything I taught my kids not to do in kindergarten.” To everyone’s surprise, the new president offers her the post of ambassador to the UN, which she accepts. It’s a way for her to gain experience in foreign policy. Very telegenic, she quickly established herself as the most prominent spokesperson for American diplomacy. Although she takes a much tougher line on Russia than the administration does, she supports withdrawal from the Paris accord, rejection of the Iranian nuclear treaty and relocation of the US embassy. in Jerusalem. Cleverly, she resigned after two years, no doubt so as not to suffer too much from her association with the White House. Since then, she has taken care of her network of donors, has written a book and is preparing her candidacy, despite her promises not to overshadow her former boss.
Its goal is to attract the disenchanted with Donald Trump. But for years, she has engaged in a balancing act, alternating criticism and praise of the ex-president. After the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, she claims, for example, that her actions will be “severely judged by history”, but then opposes her impeachment, by declaring on Fox News that he must “leave him alone”. A big gap that voters may not forgive him. In her presentation video, she calls for a “new generation of leaders”. “Haley’s fundamental weakness is that she doesn’t seem to know who she is or what she wants to be,” wrote Sarah Longwell, founder of Bulwark, a conservative anti-Trump website. Is she a loyal Trumpist? A Reagan-style Republican?
For the moment, in the polls, she remains far behind Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. But “it should not be underestimated”, warns Danielle Vinson. “In 2010, she won the seat of governor over much more established and better-funded candidates.” One thing is certain, the rumors about his infidelities (never proven) will emerge – especially with Donald Trump – or, again, the sincerity of his Christian faith. But Nikki Haley has a technique against “stalkers”, she has already said, all smiles in front of the camera: “When you run into them, it hurts more if you wear stilettos”.