CNN’s Ana Navarro skewered Donald Trump’s former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley for her politically convenient relationship with the president-elect — who announced Saturday that Haley won’t have a position in his administration.
Navarro spoke out Monday on “Anderson Cooper 360” after former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson speculated that Haley “was forced to endorse Trump” in the 2024 presidential elections so his “MAGA base” would support her own White House run in 2028.
“OK, Gretchen, Gretchen, Gretchen, Gretchen — she was not ‘forced’ to do anything,” Navarro broke in, per Mediaite. “She’s a grown-ass woman who chose to do this for her political ambitions.”
Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend that Haley would not be invited to join his administration.
“I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” he wrote. “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously.”
“Kamala Harris lost an election,” Navarro said Monday. “Nikki Haley has lost every modicum of dignity, because after first criticizing him, then she took it back, then she ran against him, then she endorsed him, then she practically begged him to let her campaign with him.”
“And now he’s saying, ‘Bye, Felicia,’” she continued. “It truly is, I find it incredibly embarrassing — a woman who had such a bright future, was one of the rising stars in the Republican Party.”
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Haley’s public stance on Trump has wavered repeatedly over the last eight years. She slammed his 2016 presidential campaign, only to accept an ambassadorship in his administration the following year. She resigned in 2018, only to praise Trump’s presidency while promoting her memoir.
The former South Carolina governor then blamed Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, but later said, “We need him in the Republican Party.” She ran against Trump in the 2024 election, only to drop out and endorse him, presumably in hopes of a Cabinet position.
Haley responded Saturday to Trump’s Truth Social post by wishing him “great success” in building “a stronger, safer America.”
While some people interpreted Trump’s rejection of Haley and Pompeo as a statement that he was purposely leaving neoconservatives out of his administration, those hopes were quickly dashed on Monday.
Trump chose Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as his U.N. ambassador and reportedly plans on naming Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) secretary of state. Both lawmakers have voiced a desire to ramp up U.S. support for Israel’s bloody military campaigns.
“The Pompeo & Haley thing seems to have been just a gimmick to throw red meat to Trump’s anti-NeoCon supporters,” one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Rubio ... and Stefanik are all terrible choices, reminiscent of the awful picks Trump made in his first term.”
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The post concluded: “Cheney might as well have endorsed Trump.”
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