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Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday that he’s open to asking Nikki Haley to campaign with him in the last stretch of the presidential election — before quickly pivoting to dismissing her presidential run against him.
“Yeah, I’ll do what I have to do, but let me just tell you: Nikki Haley and I fought and I beat her by 50, 60, 90 points. I beat her in her own state by numbers that nobody has ever been beaten by. I beat Nikki badly. I beat everyone else too, badly,” Trump said on Fox and Friends. “Everybody keeps saying that. They don’t say, ‘get Ron [DeSantis],’ and Ron did very well.”
The former president also noted that Haley is “helping us already” (Haley endorsed Trump during her speech at the RNC Convention in July and has assisted with fundraising).
All of this comes after The Bulwark reported Thursday evening that Trump’s orbit is “in talks” with Haley’s team about appearing together in an upcoming event — potentially a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Semafor confirmed that there’s been some “ongoing discussions” between the two camps, although nothing is finalized and it’s unclear how serious those conversations have been. The talks come as Harris has been aggressively reaching out to Trump-skeptical Republicans in recent weeks.
Some close to Trump have long thought that including Haley in a more front-and-center way would be a smart move in an election that is effectively tied — and still think that having her on the trail wouldn’t hurt. But Trump himself, like some of his other advisors, remains skeptical that Haley would move the needle in any significant way, especially this late.
“I mean there’s only like 18 days until the election,” one person on Trump’s team said. “Will Nikki Haley magically turn the election one way or the other? Come on.”
Semafor reached out to both Trump and Haley representatives for comment.
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Shelby’s view
As Semafor reported back in August, the biggest impasse in having Haley out on the campaign trail has been that both camps believe it’s up to the other person to reach out first. But the bigger question, of course, is whether or not her appearance would make a difference, particularly with just a few weeks left in the election.
Back in August, I noted that “the logic of a high-profile, moderate surrogate is obvious.” While that remains true, at this point the vast majority of voters have already picked a side, and I’m no longer as convinced Haley’s involvement matters much. Her power during the primary race had more to do with the fact that she was a vehicle to take on Trump, and less to do with her having a huge number of personally devoted followers who would be willing to switch their vote for him if she asked them to. The sliver of Republicans genuinely thinking of ditching Trump at this point may be more disappointed to see Haley standing alongside him than they are reassured by her presence.
Room for Disagreement
Marc A. Thiessen, a columnist for The Washington Post who served in two Republican administrations, argued in a recent op-ed that Haley has a message that could move votes.
“Haley voters are precisely the swing voters Trump should be targeting — Americans who are willing to vote for a Republican but are hesitant to do so for Trump,” Thiessen wrote. “He should be appearing with her at rallies and basking in her endorsement. He should deploy her to key battleground states for the next four weeks to convince the reluctant but persuadable 18 percent of the electorate to cast their ballots for him. Failure to do so would be sheer political malpractice. It could very well cost him the presidency.”
Notable
- “Nikki Haley voters are up for grabs for Kamala Harris,” Blueprint’s lead pollster Evan Roth Smith said after the group’s poll earlier this month found “a significant erosion of Trump’s support” among Haley supporters.
- Kamala Harris’ campaign shared the video of Trump dissing Haley’s presidential run on Fox News.