From 14, Now Down To Two: Haley Vs Trump
by Elpidio R. Estioko
The whole world is watching. Former president Donald Trump is making an unorthodox comeback to the White House and his former Ambassador to the United Nations, while Nikki Haley is giving him an unexpected challenge to the presidency.
After placing a poor third in the Iowa caucus, former South Carolina governor and former Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley was very optimistic. Instead of losing steam, she will still be in the race, and it will be down to two. Trump vs her in the GOP presidential race without even mentioning Florida governor Ron DeSantis who placed second.
Surprisingly, after her Iowa statement, DeSantis dropped from the race and her prediction became true. Wow, was that a result of a good strategy?
With the unexpected move of DeSantis, Nikki Haley is even more energized and optimistic, even with DeSantis endorsing Trump and she started her sharp attacks on Trump in New Hampshire going to South Carolina and Nevada.
Suddenly, the issues of immigration, economy, peace and order, Roe vs Wade, etc. were temporarily overtaken by the issues of mental health, performance, “generational change” and age which were seldom raised when there were 14 of them running for the presidency.
Now, Nikki Haley is hammering her attacks on Donald Trump on these issues as she tries to court the state’s independent voters and that of DeSantis’ supporters as she kept on mentioning “generational change” in her campaign.
Haley is casting her candidacy as a “better choice” for a nation gearing towards a possible rematch between Trump, 77, and Joe Biden, 81, suggesting that this time, this generation, is the time for young people (young generation) to run the government. Haley belongs to Generation X while Trump the Baby Boomers and Biden, to the Traditional (Traditionalists) generation.
Haley, who turned 52 recently, asked during a CNN town hall in Henniker, New Hampshire: “Do we really want to have two 80-year-olds running for president when we’ve got a country in disarray and a world on fire?”While indirectly doing it, she is now openly seeking confrontation with her former boss (she was Trump’s Ambassador to the UN), after months of indirect calls for “generational change” and competency tests for older politicians.
Rallying support in her home state of South Carolina, Nikki Haley labeled herself as a new Republican leader who can bring strong foreign policy experience to the table and more stability in the system than Donald Trump, who remains the frontrunner of the 2024 GOP presidential field.
As a former Ambassador to the UN, she is boosting her experience and programs in foreign relations that will propel her to the White House.
Haley, who worked for the 77-year-old former president as his first United Nations ambassador, said to a crowd at the University of South Carolina Beaufort gym: “I believe President Trump was the right president at the right time… I was proud to serve America in his administration, and I agree with a lot of his policies. But the truth is that, rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him.”
Haley represents the Republican Party’s best hope to vanquish Donald Trump. While many foes and pundits have piled on Haley for her recent Civil War Slavery “gaffe,” the reality is in the Republican primary, voters are unlikely to punish her considering the overall party’s recent crusades against subjects like “critical race theory.”
In my previous column, I wrote that there was a chance to dislodge Trump as the GOP nominee if all the other presidential candidates could coalesce and support one candidate, either Haley or DeSantis (at that time). Now that DeSantis is out, maybe, if they can support her, then Trump won’t be the GOP nominee.
However, the situation has changed. When DeSantis withdrew, he endorsed Trump. Before this, Florida Sen. Mark Rubio, a former presidential candidate too, endorsed Trump and South Carolina Senator Rick Scott, who dropped out from the race ahead of DeSantis, endorsed Trump. Will these endorsements change the political landscape and spoil the chance for Haley to be the nominee?
Well, the way it’s going on in New Hampshire, Haley is leading Trump by 20 to 30% and in South Carolina too. So, there seems to be no effect as far as the endorsements are concerned.
Political analysts say the reason the three former presidential candidates endorsed Trump was that they want to be Trump’s vice president as they believe Trump will be the GOP standard bearer.
What if Haley loses to Trump, will she accept a vice presidency offer from him? As a politician, maybe yes… just like what Rubio, DeSantis, and Scott did! But, as a principled professional, maybe not!
The fight is still a long way to go! Come November, many things will still happen like Trump being convicted of the so many legal cases brought against him, both criminal and civil.
Even just one conviction will mean a huge disaster in the chances of Trump winning the presidency. The voters, for sure, don’t want a convicted person as their president.
Throughout his campaign, Trump kept saying he was innocent and he did nothing wrong, but if he is convicted, this will defeat his arguments and will serve as a big blow to his campaign. If that happens, what will be his next campaign strategy?
Knowing Trump, of course, he can and will always appeal the decision to the highest court, but the damage has been done! The people and the voters will look at him as a convict and nothing more.
So, will age matter during the 2024 presidential elections?
The verdict? It will be up to the people, the voters to make it happen!
ELPIDIO R. ESTIOKO was a veteran journalist in the Philippines and an award-winning journalist here in the US. He just published his book Unlocking the Chain of Poverty: In Pursuit of the American Dream which is now available with Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Xlibris Publishing. For feedbacks, comments… please email author at estiokoelpidio@gmail.com.
