Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley broke with former President Donald Trump in an interview Friday when she said, “He let us down.”
“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” Haley, who served in the Trump administration for almost two years, told Politico. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have. And we shouldn’t have followed him. And we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”
Haley added that she doesn’t believe Trump will be in the conversation for the Republican ticket for president in 2024, and he will “never run for federal office again.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture,” Haley said, suggesting that the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill siege permanently damaged his political career. “I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”
The former South Carolina governor also took issue with Trump’s treatment of former Vice President Mike Pence, saying she was “disgusted” by the situation.
“When I tell you I’m angry, it’s an understatement,” Haley said. “I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I’m disgusted by it.”
Haley, who was a critic of Trump while he ran for president in 2016, became a supporter while serving in his administration and is widely expected to be positioning herself for a presidential run in 2024.
Haley acknowledged in the interview that Trump’s supporters are passionate, and they won’t “just fall to the wayside” and explained that she doesn’t believe the Republican Party should completely return to what it was before he started his political career.
“What we need to do is take the good that he built, leave the bad that he did, and get back to a place where we can be a good, valuable, effective party,” Haley said. “But at the same time, it’s bigger than the party.”
