Your Monthly Reminder That Nikki Haley Is A Social-Climbing Opportunist – The Federalist

Nikki Haley is a social-climbing political opportunist whose most deeply held political belief is Nikki Haley.

This has been true since before she even entered the national consciousness, but she blessed us with a quick refresher course Thursday when she condemned President Donald Trump during a dinner speech to the Republican National Committees annual winter meeting.

Shes not alone in doing so. Corporate media swelled this week with Republicans who, like Haley, spent years working for the president (and were campaigning for him as recently as two months ago) and now are denouncing him with all their might.

Most of those resigning will advertise this as a brave decision. But its tough to pin a medal on spending the remaining two weeks of the presidents term trying out for a job on CNN (or at least a pardon from corporate recruiters), and it only gets tougher when compounded with the honest assessment that the same corporate media (and the Democrats they support) share a great deal of the blame with Trump for the events leading up to Wednesdays shameful and depressing riot.

But wanna-be President Haley isnt focused on such tiny ambitions, nor is this her first time earning quick points condemning Trump. The New York businessman is everything a governor doesnt want in a president, shed told a reporter before South Carolinas 2016 Republican presidential debate. She made sure to glare for the cameras when they came around for the big day.

But circumstances and opportunities change. This is why, two weeks before the 2016 election, Haley told reporters shed be voting for the Republican nominee even though his campaign was embarrassing and had turned [her] stomach upside down. Her decision, she publicly lamented, was not an easy one, despite it being precisely the easiest and safest decision available to a professional Republican who still wanted to be president someday.

Two weeks later, Trump won the election and Haley saw her opportunities shifting yet again. By the end of November, shed said shed accept his nomination to ambassador to the United Nations a job that gave her the foreign policy experience and spotlight she needed to keep her name in the running for future president.

But that wasnt all it got her: After shed left the administration, Haleys experience working for Trump won her $315,000 sitting on Boeings board. It was a step up from her previous hodgepodge of jobs in the private sector, where shed accepted inflated salaries from multiple companies. She was just a state senator back then, but the companies paying her salaries had business before her legislature. Its good to get ahead when youre Nikki Haley.

Those South Carolina paychecks eventually sparked an ethics investigation and a small fine in 2013, although by then she was governor. See, the Tea Party had come along, and sensing opportunity (!), Haley had set herself to reading a few Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman books, and traveled around the state quoting them to wealthy conservative donors.

Impressed with the young woman, they backed her all the way to the governors mansion, where her presidential ambitions began to shine as 1) the first female governor of South Carolina, 2) the youngest governor in the country, and 3) the second Indian governor in American history.

Her Tea Party honeymoon didnt last, however: Her tax breaks to major international companies undercutting local manufacturers didnt sit well with them. By 2016, then-Gov. Haleys much-lauded endorsement of Sen. Marco Rubio landed him 10 points behind Trump in her own state.

That doesnt mean shes down and out by any stretch. Its been a long road to the White House, and shes made all the safe decisions at every turn, with Thursdays speech just the latest detour. Circumstances and opportunities change quickly, after all. And so does Nikki Haley.

Continue reading here:

Your Monthly Reminder That Nikki Haley Is A Social-Climbing Opportunist - The Federalist