Status: 02/14/2023 5:38 p.m
Once she was Donald Trump’s US ambassador, now she’s becoming his rival: Republican Nikki Haley wants to become her party’s presidential candidate – and herald a generational change.
It’s still more than a year and a half until the US presidential elections. But the election campaign within the parties has begun: Ex-President Donald Trump declared his candidacy last November. And now the first opponents are positioning themselves – the first official one is Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley promotes generational change
Two years ago, Haley sounded pretty categorical: “I wouldn’t run if President Trump ran.” The Republican has since changed her mind. The 51-year-old is his first challenger from his own camp. In a tweet with an attached video message, Haley has now made her candidacy official. Caption: “Rejoice! It’s time for a new generation.”
Republicans have won fewer votes than Democrats in seven of the past eight presidential elections, Haley said. And that’s why it’s now high time for a new leadership team – and a return to traditional Republican values such as responsible financial policy, secure borders and a strengthened, proud country with clear goals.
Haley as Republican hopeful
Haley has been touted as a Republican hopeful with presidential potential for years. The always very elegantly dressed woman with long dark hair grew up in provincial South Carolina, the daughter of Indian immigrants. The father taught at the university, the mother ran a boutique, among other things. Haley helped out there a lot as a teenager.
At the 2020 Republican Convention, Haley described her adolescence: “My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a black and white world. We experienced discrimination and harsh circumstances. But my parents never indulged in resentment or hatred .”
The youngest woman governor in US history
Many in the United States, Haley now says in her application video, clearly alluding to progressive Democrats, would claim that America’s ideals and ideas are not only wrong, but racist and evil. But that’s not the case at all. Even on the worst of days, Americans are blessed in their country.
Her career is the best example of this: in 2011, at the age of just 39, she became the youngest governor in US history in her home state. During her tenure, South Carolina has blossomed into the “Beast of the South East”, i.e. into an economic powerhouse – she is particularly proud of that.
So far no realistic chances of nomination
Haley also wants to score points with her foreign policy experience: for two years she was US ambassador to the United Nations, so to speak Trump’s international calf biter. There she made a name for herself through diplomacy in very clear words, sometimes threatening alleged enemies of the United States with her high-heeled shoes: “You should know one thing about me,” says Haley now, “I don’t just let Bullys grant it. And if you do resigns in high heels – that hurts especially.”
Haley’s chances of being nominated seem rather slim at the moment – in surveys she has hardly got over three percent so far. Ex-President Trump doesn’t seem to be too worried about that: Other potential competitors, such as Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, who are now either equal to or just ahead of the ex-President, Trump likes to scold as “disloyal”. A few weeks ago, however, he said to Haley: “You should do it.”