Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday warned embracing socialism as an economic system in America could destroy the country.
“America’s dangerous flirtation with socialism is in colleges, in the media, and in Congress,” Haley said during an event in Grand Rapids, Mich., according to MLive.com. “We have an obligation to remind everyone that if you care about global poverty, you should support capitalism.”
It was a similar admonition to rhetoric displayed by President Trump and organizers of his 2020 reelection campaign who have vowed to insert anti-socialist ideas into their messaging.
[Related: Nikki Haley launches policy group that will combat ‘socialist schemes’]
Trump has routinely pointed to America’s strong economy as his biggest achievement and the reward that can be reaped from allowing loosely regulated capitalism to thrive.
Haley left the administration in 2018 and has since taken a seat on the board of Boeing with a more than $300,000 a year salary.
The former South Carolina governor has tamped down rumors of a possible Republican primary challenge to Trump in 2020, while some GOP strategists remain confident she could serve as a viable candidate for the party in 2024.
“I look forward to supporting the president in the next election,” Haley said last October.
Several Democratic candidates for president have embraced so-called Democratic socialism such as Sens. Bernie Sander of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Trump has proudly proclaimed at rallies and other events that “America will never be a socialist country.”
The president and his allies have pointed to the crisis in Venezuela as an example of socialist ideology gone awry.
