The world is sorely in need of the resolute foreign policy that Republicans once represented
Things went from bad to catastrophic for ex-South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s sole remaining challenger for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, after a blowout loss on Saturday in her home-state primary.
The Associated Press called the South Carolina primary for Trump shortly after polls closed at 7pm ET, indicating that Haley would not even come within striking distance of the former president. When the votes were tallied, Trump crushed Haley by a 20-point margin (59.8 per cent to 39.5 per cent), easily gaining the Palmetto State’s 44 delegates.
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Haley’s home-state setback is the latest in a string of humiliating losses. Just over two weeks ago, she was bested by “none of these candidates” by more than 30 points in a Trump-less Nevada primary. (Trump won Nevada’s caucus two days later with 99 per cent of the vote, taking all 26 of the state’s delegates). Going into last night’s vote, Haley held just 17 of the Republican party’s 130 bound delegates. She now finds herself staring into the abyss after getting blown out in her own backyard.
It’s hard to pinpoint where, exactly, things went wrong for the 52-year-old Haley, who, in a pre-Trump world, would be almost tailor-made for a successful Republican primary run. In addition to her seven years at the helm of a medium-sized coastal state, Haley boasts formidable foreign policy experience, being appointed by Trump himself in 2017 as the U.S.’ 29th Ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley earned solid reviews over her near two-year tenure as America’s top diplomat. Despite serving under an erratic boss with staunchly isolationist instincts, she commendably managed to execute a more-or-less traditional Republican foreign policy, holding the line on geopolitical foes Russia and Iran while standing firmly with an increasingly isolated Israel. Haley was notably ahead of the curve in speaking out against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for its anti-Israel leanings and general ineffectiveness.
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Under normal circumstances, Haley’s foreign policy acumen would be one of her top selling points in her bid to become the next commander-in-chief. Instead, it’s emerged as arguably her biggest liability as the party’s base gravitates towards an “America-First” isolationism, with some key right-leaning influencers even flirting with Moscow.
Haley was effectively painted as a money-grubbing “forever wars” profiteer during the pre-primary period, with insurgent candidate Vivek Ramaswamy doing much of the heavy lifting in cementing this narrative. This charge isn’t totally off-base as Haley joined the board of aerospace giant Boeing just months after leaving the Trump administration at the end of 2018.
The fireworks between Haley and Ramaswamy were among the few highlights from the mostly meaningless Trump-free Republican primary debates. In one memorable flashpoint, Haley called Ramaswamy “scum” for bringing up her daughter’s use of Chinese-made social media app TikTok. In another, Ramaswamy held up a handwritten sign reading “Nikki = Corrupt” to punctuate a point about Haley’s financial stake in the military-industrial complex.
“This is a woman who will send your kids to die so she can buy a bigger house,” Ramaswamy said of Haley in the fourth and final Republican debate of 2023. He would ultimately drop out after January’s Iowa Caucuses and endorse Trump the same night.
The tragic irony of Haley’s political death spiral is that it comes precisely at a time when the U.S. — and, for that matter, the world — would likely benefit from a return to the resolute American foreign policy that has, historically, been the Republican party’s forte.
Whomever wins November’s presidential election will face a chaotic global landscape that’s in desperate need of restored American leadership. Haley’s time as U.N. ambassador, in fact, offers a promising roadmap for a successful post-Biden administration foreign policy as the threats from Russia and Iran have only grown in recent years. The next American president will also need to be a steadfast ally of Israel, with UNRWA and other U.N. agencies more openly biased against the Jewish state than ever before.
Nikki Haley isn’t just the Republican party’s last line of defence against Donald Trump; she may, in fact, be the party’s last best hope against fully retreating into isolationism. An inward-looking GOP wouldn’t just be bad for America; it would be calamitous for the entire world.
Haley’s now near-inevitable loss in the Republican primaries could ultimately be a loss for all of us.
National Post
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