Haley says she will vote for Trump, calls Biden ‘a catastrophe’

Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she will vote for Donald Trump, despite maintaining he has “not been perfect” on many policies.

During an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington, her first public speaking event since exiting the presidential race in March, Haley said her priorities as a voter are supporting a president who would back America’s allies and hold its enemies accountable, who would secure the border, support “capitalism and freedom,” and who would lower the national debt.

“Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I've made that clear many, many times,” Haley said. “But Biden has been a catastrophe.”

“So I will be voting for Trump. Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech.”

When she announced over two months ago that she was ending her presidential bid, Haley declined to endorse Trump, saying he must work to “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support him.”

And Haley’s announcement Wednesday of her plans to vote for him this fall hardly amounted to a full-throated endorsement.

“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they're just going to be with him,” she said.

The news came as Haley made her public debut as the Walter P. Stern chair at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank, delivering a blistering rebuke of the growing isolationist wing of her Republican Party, while also slamming President Joe Biden’s foreign policy.

The Biden campaign has sought to pick up Haley’s supporters in key battleground states, particularly as Republican primary voters have continued to cast what amounts to protest votes against Trump by supporting Haley’s now-defunct bid for president.

Throughout her speech Wednesday, Haley offered criticism of both parties, however.

“A loud part of each party wants us to abandon our allies, appease our enemies, and focus only on the problems we have at home,” Haley said. “This worldview has already put America in great danger — and the threat is mounting by the day.”

Biden’s campaign was quick to diminish Haley’s comments, saying there is still a segment of GOP voters who are “rejecting the chaos, division and violence that Donald Trump embodies.”

“Nothing has changed for the millions of Republican voters who continue to cast their ballots against Donald Trump in the primaries and care deeply about the future of our democracy, standing strong with our allies against foreign adversaries, and working across the aisle to get things done for the American people,” said Biden spokesperson Michael Tyler.

Haley’s speech Wednesday served as something of a preview of her place in the run-up to the November election — with the former U.N. ambassador blasting Biden but also advancing an interventionist foreign policy at odds with much of the Republican Party’s base. Haley said she plans to make a trip to Israel soon to show her support for the Israeli people.

Haley praised House Speaker Mike Johnson for securing military aid for Ukraine, while accusing other Republicans of trying “to push Ukraine off a cliff” or, in an implicit criticism of Trump, fixating on border security.

“Republicans are wrong when they say we have to fix the border before doing anything else,” Haley said. “We shouldn’t pretend we can only solve one problem at a time.”

In her speech, Haley came to the defense of Israel and criticized Biden’s recent decision to pause certain heavy bombs from Israel amid its ongoing conflict in Gazaas a “foolish” decision that is “dragging out a war, emboldening terrorists, and making other wars more likely.”

And she cast the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan as a catalyst for an emboldened Iran and Russia.

“Joe Biden’s legacy is already clear. He will go down in history as the commander-in-chief who refused to stop our enemies,” Haley said.

The speech echoed many of the same points Haley made on the campaign trail when she tried to showcase her foreign policy expertise and took a different tack than her rivals on issues like funding for Ukraine and posturing towards Russia.

Haley said the helicopter crash in Northern Iran “couldn’t have happened to a worse person.”

“Ebrahim Raisi was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents. The people of Iran are better off without him,” Haley said.

While Haley said she planned to vote for Trump, she did thank her coalition of supporters — which include moderate Republicans, independents and so-called Never Trumpers in the party — who have continued to cast votes for her in primary contests to protest Trump.

On Tuesday, 14 percent of Republican primary voters in Kentucky cast a vote for someone other than Trump, with Haley picking up over 6 percent of support. In the Indiana Republican primary on May 7, Haley won nearly 22 percent of the vote. And she has racked up similar margins in states like Maryland and Nebraska.

Haley has been guarded about what her future political plans may be. Last week, she huddled in Charleston with some of her top donors to say thank you but also allow them to hear from her team on their fundraising numbers and strategy decisions.

On Wednesday, many of Haley’s top campaign advisers were also in the audience, including campaign manager Betsy Ankney and longtime adviser Jon Lerner. In addition to her remarks about Trump and foreign policy, Haley talked about her life post-campaign trial.

“The first thing I did was catch up on my sleep,” Haley said. “I quickly got back to running which I missed on the campaign. I was able to spend time with my parents who live with us and get [her husband] Michael back home from deployment.”