Trump World in Talks With Haley for Eleventh-Hour Joint Campaign Event

A gender gap needs fixing.

Nikki Haley on Wednesday March 6, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

DONALD TRUMP’S ONETIME U.N. ambassador and former primary rival, Nikki Haley, is in talks to join him on the campaign trail in an attempt to win over disaffected Republicans, sources familiar with the discussions tell The Bulwark.

The details and dates for the joint appearance haven’t been fully worked out, but the likeliest scenario would put the two together at a town hall toward the end of the month, perhaps involving Fox News personality Sean Hannity, the sources said.

Facing a yawning gender gap, Trump’s campaign has hosted five other town halls moderated by female political figures since August, but none with the stature of Haley. The former ambassador ran a tough primary race against Trump, becoming the last Republican standing against him. Though the primary ended on a contentious note, she spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention on July 16.

Since then, however, Haley and Trump have not appeared together. And she hinted that tensions still linger on her new SiriusXM satellite radio show last month.

“I don’t agree with Trump 100 percent of the time,” Haley said.

“I have not forgotten what he said about me. I’ve not forgotten what he said about my husband or his, you know, deployment time or his military service. I haven’t forgotten about his or his campaign’s tactics from, you know, putting a bird cage outside our hotel room to calling me ‘bird brain,’” Haley said on her show, adding that she’s still for Trump because she thinks he “will make the country better.”

Those comments garnered some attention in Trump’s orbit. One confidant of the ex-president privately joked that talk like that is usually taboo in his circles because “if you’re with him 99 percent of the time, you’re a fucking traitor in Trump’s eyes.”

But Trump prizes winning over servile loyalty, and he recognizes that Haley’s brand as an establishment Republican—one who respectfully disagrees with him on the margins—could help in November, even if he said the opposite during the primary. 

Trump and his campaign are also keenly aware that Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign has taken steps to court Haley voters. The vice president’s team launched Republicans for Harris two months ago, it has hired a National Republican Engagement Director, and on Wednesday, it showcased the support of more than a hundred Republicans at an event in Pennsylvania. A Democratic-leaning super PAC called Haley Voters for Harris is lending support, as well.

Many polls show Harris is receiving marginally more support from Democrats than Trump is from Republicans and that she’s enjoying a similarly tiny measure of additional crossover support from Republicans than he is from Democrats.

“There’s a good number of independents and Haley-style Republicans who are very open to voting for VP Harris, and that’s why we are open to doing events with Republicans and on Fox News,” Harris spokesman Brian Fallon told reporters after the vice president had a tense interview with Bret Baier.

A poll of those voters published exclusively last week by The Bulwark showed that 43 percent of Haley primary voters were unaware she endorsed Trump after she quit the race. To help educate those voters, Haley has already recorded a robocall to be sent to them on the Trump campaign’s behalf.

But that poll, which was conducted by the Democratic-leaning firm Blueprint, showed other troubling signs for Trump. He only carried Republican and Independent-Republican Haley primary voters by a 9 percentage point margin over Harris: 45–36 percent. Those same voters said they had backed Trump over Joe Biden by a 31-point margin in the 2020 election.

The 22-point difference in those two margins could have huge ramifications in the campaign, especially in the seven swing states where Haley earned nearly 1 million votes during the primary. 

But Blueprint pollster Evan Roth Smith cautioned that there’s no evidence that Haley can simply transfer her primary supporters to Trump. He pointed out that the poll showed that Haley voters, which did not include Democrats, were most supportive of Trump in 2016 when he ran against Hillary Clinton, indicating that their backing has steadily declined regardless of his opponent.

“Haley is not the decisive factor for these voters,” Smith said. “The decisive factor is Trump. He’s what pushed them to vote for Haley in the primary. She was the vehicle to capture this drift. She wasn’t the cause.”

A Haley spokesperson did not provide comment.

A top Republican consultant familiar with discussions in Trump’s campaign said Haley has “already exceeded expectations helping us out,” noting that “she has done a robocall supporting Trump and she has helped fundraise for the [former] president.”

“There’s no reason to doubt her loyalty and willingness to help,” the source said. “Now they just have to get the schedules lined up.”

But others in Trump’s orbit weren’t fully convinced that a joint event would happen, speculating that some hard feelings could get in the way. “I’ll believe it when I see” Haley onstage with Trump, a Trump adviser said on condition of anonymity. 

“I hope it happens,” the adviser added, pointing out Haley would be the perfect surrogate to close out Trump’s de facto town hall series with women hosts, which have included former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in Wisconsin, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Michigan, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn in Michigan, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in North Carolina, and Fox News personality Harris Faulkner in Georgia.

“Anyone who wants to make America great again, secure our southern border, restore law and order, and bring down inflation only has one option on the ballot, and that option is President Donald J. Trump,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who criticized Harris. “We welcome all Americans who share these values to join our team.”