Don Jr. Has Harsh Words For Trump's Prospective VP, Nikki Haley
Don Trump Jr. has been a vocal supporter and advocate for his father's presidential campaigns since 2016. Donald Trump is currently leading the pack by quite a margin in polls for who should be the next Republican nominee for president. Earlier in the year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was seen as his main challenger, but former United States ambassador Nikki Haley from South Carolina has been gaining momentum.
Such is the power of her recent rise in the polls that Trump has reportedly been talking to his campaign about whether or not he should make her his vice-presidential pick, according to CBS News. But Trump Jr. went on Newsmax's "Eric Bolling The Balance" show and seemed to shut down any possibility that Haley might become Trump's VP. "I would go to great lengths to make sure that that doesn't happen," he said. Trump Jr. explained why he felt she wasn't the right fit for his father's presidential ticket, as well as seeming to reinforce why she also shouldn't be the Republican presidential candidate: "Nikki Haley wants never-ending wars. She's a puppet of the establishment in Washington, D.C. She's the new favorite candidate of the billionaire class because they want control — no different than academia and Harvard." Trump, it's worth noting, is himself a billionaire.
Nikki Haley could be a threat to Donald Trump
Eric Bolling pushed back a bit on the idea that Nikki Haley wouldn't be a good VP pick for Donald Trump by noting that Fox News likes her. That didn't seem like a big selling point for Donald Trump Jr. — the Trump family, and some Trump fans, seem to have soured on Fox News ever since they made the call in 2020 that Joe Biden was projected to win Arizona. Trump Jr. said that if Haley became the VP, she couldn't be trusted, and she would be "trying to destroy Donald Trump from within forever." He went on to say, "The second she ever got that, you know, anointment [as VP], it would be disaster of epic proportions."
Trump responded to Haley's poll numbers in New Hampshire, which put her within four points of him, by posting in all caps to Truth Social: "FAKE NEW HAMPSHIRE POLL WAS RELEASED ON BIRDBRAIN. JUST ANOTHER SCAM! RATINGS CHALLENGED FOXNEWS WILL PLAY IT TO THE HILT." For some, his response to the poll and continued direct attacks on Haley signals that he's worried about the possibility that Haley might beat him in some primary matchups. One such attack has included Trump referring to Haley as "birdbrain," which he's done for a few months now. Trump's team even reportedly went so far as to deliver a birdcage to Haley, leaving it outside her hotel room in Iowa.
Nikki Haley is insulted by VP rumors
Don Trump Jr. isn't the only Donald Trump supporter who has gone public about not wanting to see Nikki Haley on the ticket as Trump's VP. Tucker Carlson, former Fox News host, said in a conversation at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest, that if Haley was Trump's VP that, "I would not only not vote for that ticket, I would advocate against it as strongly as I could." He then repeated a similar talking point to Trump Jr., calling her, "a creature of the oligarchs."
But at least at this point in the presidential race, it doesn't sound like Trump Jr. or Carlson have anything to worry about, because Haley's not interested in being Donald Trump's VP — or anyone's. In an interview with David Brody for Christian Broadcast Network, he brought up the VP rumors, and Haley said: "I don't play for second. It's offensive when anybody says, oh, she wants to be vice president. You don't do something like this to be vice president." We'll just have to wait and see how things play out between Haley and Trump in the first votes of 2024 — Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses are on January 15, 2024 and New Hampshire's primary election is January 23, 2024.