Donald Trump Jr. has mocked Nikki Haley after she criticized his father's choice of former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence.
The eldest son of President-elect Donald Trump called out Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, for comments she made on her SiriusXM show, accusing Gabbard of being a "Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer."
Haley listed several reasons why she does not believe Gabbard is suitable for the position.
These include allegations that Gabbard spread Russian propaganda, spoke out against issuing sanctions against Iran, and expressed skepticism that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, reacting to her remarks, Trump Jr. said: "If Nikki Haley really wants a cabinet filled with neocon warmongers to satisfy the billionaire donors that control her, she should try running for president and winning herself... Oh wait, I forgot she already tried that and lost in a landslide."
Newsweek has contacted Haley and Gabbard's offices and the Trump-JD Vance transition team for comment via email.
Haley ran against Trump in the 2024 GOP primary, but dropped out in the wake of the Super Tuesday results. She eventually went on to endorse Trump in the race against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump recently confirmed that Haley would not be given a role in his second administration when he returns to the White House in 2025. He has received bipartisan scrutiny for his nominations for key Cabinet positions, including Gabbard for director of national intelligence, former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.
"You can go back and look at a speech I gave, holding up pictures of dead children who had been killed by chemical attacks," Haley said on her show. "For her to say that Assad was not behind that—literally everything she said about that were Russian talking points. Every bit of that was Russian propaganda.
"After Russia invaded Ukraine, Tulsi Gabbard literally blamed NATO, our Western alliance, for countering Russia," Haley said. "She blamed NATO for the attack on Ukraine, and the Russians and the Chinese echoed her talking points in her interviews on Russian and Chinese television.
"So now she's defended Russia, she's defended Syria, she's defended Iran, and she's defended China. She has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn't taken one of them back," Haley added. "This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer," in reference to the director of national intelligence position.
A number of other Trump supporters attacked Haley over her radio remarks, in which she also criticized the decision to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Social media user Joey Mannarino, a Trump supporter with more than 579,000 followers on X, wrote while sharing a clip of Haley's remarks: "Nikki Haley is a jealous, bitter psycho."
Nick Sortor, an independent journalist who regularly appears on right-wing news outlets and podcasts, posted: "If Haley hates Tulsi, then I support Tulsi even more."
Michael J. DaPos, social media editor of the pro-Trump Right Side Broadcasting Network, wrote: "This is why Tulsi and Bobby [Kennedy Jr.] are in the cabinet, and Nikki is not."
Elsewhere, Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, praised Haley for doing a "great job setting the record straight on Tulsi Gabbard's sympathetic ties to terrorist regimes and her criticism of the Trump administration's bold actions against Iran and Qasem Soleimani."
Soleimani was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from 1998 until his assassination by the United States in 2020.
Trump's Cabinet choices will need to be confirmed by the Senate in a simple majority vote, unless the president-elect succeeds in getting them pushed through via recess nominations.
With the GOP on course to control the upper chamber next year with a 53-47 majority, no candidate can afford to have more than three Republican senators vote against their nomination.
)
English (US) ·