Nikki Haley's husband, Michael Haley, returns from year-long deployment

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s husband, Maj. Michael Haley, has returned to the United States after completing his year-long deployment with the South Carolina National Guard.

Michael Haley had been serving as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade in the Horn of Africa, deploying while his wife was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.

Haley and her husband have been married for 27 years. She included a photo of them embracing on X on Saturday, announcing that he had returned to the U.S.

“That moment when you finally take a breath…It’s been a long year but even longer without each other,” she wrote on the social media platform. “Thankful for Michael’s safe return and the end of a year long prayer.”

As former President Donald Trump faced off against Nikki Haley for the GOP nomination, the former president attacked Michael Haley and targeted his absence from the campaign trail.

"Where’s your husband? ... Oh, he’s away ... He’s away,” Trump said at a rally earlier this year. “What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband? Where is he? ... He’s gone!”

Haley responded on X at the time.

"Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about," Haley wrote. "Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief."

President Joe Biden and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu were also among those who also criticized Trump for his remarks.

Trump has repeatedly faced allegations of disparaging members of the military. The Atlantic reported in 2020 that the former president called American war victims “losers” and “suckers.” In 2015 during his first presidential campaign, he said former Sen. John McCain, who served in Vietnam and was a prisoner of war, was “not a war hero.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Haley's husband, subject of Trump attacks, returns from deployment