What Did You Expect From Haley?

Nikki Haley wants to run for president in 2028. So, she did what she had to do and endorsed Donald Trump.

While people like me admired Haley for standing up to Trump for as long as she did, it’s also true that people like me were never going to vote for her. Because, while I respect principled conservatives, I am not one myself.

But, while I understand what Haley felt she needed to do as a practical politician, Trump is no normal rival. Let us review the things that are not up for question:

Trump has begun using the language of Adolf Hitler in reference to migrants and his political opponents.

Trump spoke at a rally on January 6, 2021 encouraging his supporters to “fight like hell” and then sat back and did nothing for hours while he watched them storm the Capitol. Five people died.

Trump called the Georgia Secretary of State and pressured him to “find votes” that would overturn the outcome there.

Trump refused to do what every one of his predecessors had done and gracefully concede the election and aid in a peaceful transition of power. He has since carried on with his lies about voter fraud and has been partially successful in undermining trust in our institutions.

Trump has been solicitous of Vladimir Putin and other vicious dictators.

Trump has been found liable for defrauding his investors.

Trump has been found liable for sexual assault in civil court.

Trump mocked a genuine war hero in John McCain while he himself dodged the draft yet he keeps talking about respecting veterans.

I could go on, but these are just Trump’s greatest hits off the top of my head. For any other candidate any one of those things would end their political careers. And yet, Trump leads in every poll and is the odds-on-favorite to return to the White House.

At some point you have to decide if you’re going to do the thing that makes sense vis a vis normal rivals in normal times or if you’re going to continue to stand up to someone so thoroughly vile and so contrary to all of our democratic traditions as Donald Trump. If Republican leaders had done so — or would do so now — en masse Trump would go down. Sure, his base would go crazy and Republicans would lose the presidency again this time, but it’s only one cycle and the upside is that American democracy would be saved.

A person who had the courage to lead a movement like that would go down in history as a great American. But that won’t be Nikki Haley.