The Tin Can Conservative

A Patriot's Musings on Culture, History, Politics, and Faith

Who Is Nikki Haley?

Nikki Haley is a darling of the conservative movement.

She served as the governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. Then, President Trump appointed her as the United States’ ambassador to the UN from 2017 to 2018. In effect, Nikki Haley became a major figure in the Republican party during the 2010s.

After she stepped down as UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley has been angling to run for President. In the past few years, she’s made numerous appearances on conservative media outlets—from Fox News to PragerU—and has spoken at major conservative conferences—such as CPAC and the Republican National Convention.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Nikki-Haley.jpg
britannica.com

She’s even started her own PAC (the Stand for America PAC) to “support principled conservatives” in the 2022 Midterms elections.

In fact, there’s already an official “Students for Nikki Haley” Twitter account that exists—showing that she hopes to eventually run for President either in 2024 or 2028.

Let me be clear that I cannot stand Nikki Haley. I am biased, and I freely admit that fact.

Why don’t I like Nikki Haley? Plain and simple, she’s a grifter. Let’s explore how Nikki Haley is the ultimate grifter in the conservative politics.

What’s a Grifter?

To start, what exactly is a grifter?

According to the Urban Dictionary, a grifter is “somebody who can influence anybody, anywhere, at anytime, into doing whatever they choose to have them do, that will result in the grifter’s personal gain. Usually monetary, but really anything that benefits him or her somehow”

Pretty simple, right? A grifter is an opportunist who’s willing to do or say whatever is necessary to make money or gain power.

Nikki Haley pretty much checks off all the boxes for a grifter. In the past few years, she has constantly flip-flopped her support of President Trump whenever she’s deemed it politically necessary. She changes her position on the drop of a hat whenever she thinks it will benefit her political status. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s look at several examples of what I’m talking about.

The Timeline of Nikki Haley being a Grifter:

1. Nikki Haley Compared Donald Trump to Dylann Roof (No, Seriously)

In 2016, Nikki Haley compared to Donald Trump to Dylann Roof—the racist mass-murderer who shot up a black church in Charleston. She told the Associated Press that Trump’s rhetoric was so dangerous in the following quote:

“I know what that rhetoric can do. I saw it happen,”

That claim is absolutely disgusting. I’ve never heard anyone call out Nikki Haley for that slander. But, I digress.

2. Haley’s Claim that Trump didn’t disavow the KKK (2016)

In early 2016, Nikki Haley harshly criticized President Trump—before he gained the Republican Presidential nomination later that year. Here’s a statement she made attacking President Trump about not “disavowing” the KKK:

“I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK,” Haley said. “That is not a part of our party, that is not who we want as president. We will allow not allow that in our country.”

Fast Forward to 2020/2021. Between early 2016 and 2021, Nikki Haley embraced President Trump after he gained the Republican Presidential nomination and won the 2016 general election against Hillary Clinton. She then served as the USA’s ambassador to the UN in 2017 and 2018.

3. Nikki Haley during the George Floyd riots (Summer 2020)

During the George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020, Nikki Haley made some questionable statements. Here are some tweets she made during that tense time:

Nikki Haley—a prominent “conservative”—decided that pandering to the radical left was a good idea.

She was telling all of us that we needed to feel sorry for George Floyd’s death. Never mind that rioters were burning your cities, looting your local businesses, and physically attacking law-abiding citizens.

4. President Trump is Bad, but Now He’s good (Post January 6th)

After the January 6th protests earlier this year, Nikki Haley saw that it was politically expedient to condemn President Trump. Many—including Nikki Haley—thought President Trump’s political future was dead after January 6th.

Consequently, Nikki Haley made some of the following statements in her February 2021 interview with Politico:

“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

“And it wasn’t just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.”

Cover illustration of Nikki Haley
politico.com

But wait, Nikki Haley magically decided that President Trump was actually cool a guy just a few weeks later. About two weeks after her criticism of President Trump, Nikki Haley praised President Trump for his speech at CPAC in late February 2021.

Here’s what said about President Trump’s CPAC speech:

Strong speech by President Trump about the winning policies of his administration and what the party needs to unite behind moving forward. The liberal media wants a GOP civil war. Not gonna happen,”

Nikki Haley’s constant flip-flopping is astounding.

Even President Trump recently roasted Nikki Haley for her flip-flopping in a recent Vanity Fair interview:

“Well, every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later,”

5. Nikki Haley & Speaking Engagements

Last but not least, Nikki Haley makes a ton of money on speaking engagements.

A prime feature of the grifter is to charge a ton of money for speaking engagements. According to CNBC, Haley was charging $200k for speaking engagements in 2019.

As a reminder, Nikki Haley was an average governor and a former ambassador to the UN. Within a year of exiting the Trump administration, she was charging as much as Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Ben Bernake—who was the Fed Reserve Chairman during the 2008 Financial Crisis—did for speaking engagements.

Conclusion

To close, I just want to make clear that I do not hate Nikki Haley. However, my issue is that she rarely gets called out for being a blatant “grifter”.

Nikki Haley does not have a set of core beliefs. She is the epitome of a politician. She changes her mind at a whim whenever she thinks it would be politically expedient to do so.

In short, Nikki Haley does what’s best for Nikki Haley.

She’s not looking to actually improve our nation. She’s just an opportunist who’s looking to launch herself to the White House.

The American Right needs to stop putting up with politicians like Nikki Haley. We need America-1st politicians who put the needs of the nation ahead of their personal interests or the interests of the globalist American ruling class.

It’s time to stop celebrating Nikki Haley as a “darling of the conservative movement”. It’s time to stop.