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“A big fight” will decide whether Nikki Haley becomes former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, according to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
On the podcast “Human Events with Jack Posobiec,” Bannon warned that a “big fight” was coming up in the spring.
“They’re gonna try to force Nikki on the ticket. They’ll say Trump needs a woman, Nikki on the ticket, she balances things and she can bring together that 15% of Never Trumpers in the Republican party. We’re going to have to have that fight. If Nikki Haley is in this administration in any capacity, it will fail,” Bannon said.
“She’s a viper. She’s a viper and once she gets in there, she’ll try to run it as prime minister. She’ll try to be Dick Cheney. Her relationship with Trump will be similar to that of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. That’s what she’ll try to do,” he added.
The ex-governor of South Carolina has hinted that she has no interest in being Trump’s vice president and “doesn’t play for second.”
Bannon isn’t the only powerful figure who has come out against the idea of Haley possibly being Trump’s running mate.
Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Trump, stated on Newsmax that he would “go to great lengths to make sure” that Haley does not join his father’s campaign.
In a December interview with conservative political commentator Tim Pool, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said, “I would advocate against it as strongly as I could,” in reference to a Trump-Haley ticket.
During a campaign event in Lebanon, New Hampshire, Haley was asked if she would accept an offer to be Trump’s vice president.
Haley did not give a straightforward answer and said, in part, “If you want to talk about vice president, I will tell you this now: I’ve said it before—I don’t play for second. I’ve never played for second. I’m not going to start now.”
WATCH:
BANNON: “We’re going to have a big fight that will take place in the Spring, they’re going to try to force Nikki Haley on the ticket, to say Trump needs a woman”
And if she becoming VP, that’s when they take out Trumphttps://t.co/x05jba2d6Ypic.twitter.com/EprEzhT5uW
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 1, 2024
Trump has also spoken about Haley recently.
In the interview with Just the News, Trump made it clear that Haley “is not on his vice presidential list because there isn’t one right now,” while adding some new details regarding what will become his foreign policy objectives.
The outlet added that Trump will penalize federal agencies with reduced funding if they tolerate anti-Semitism within their workforces, as well as non-profits receiving federal funds if they threaten Jews in any way.
Just the News added: He made clear securing the U.S. southern border is a top priority as is cutting off the sources of income from oil sales and reclaiming the unfrozen funds that he says has revived Iran’s terrorism activities across the globe on Joe Biden’s watch. Those activities include recent rocket and drone attacks from proxy groups targeting U.S. troops. The United States said Tuesday that it had shot down 12 attack drones and five missiles launched by the Iran-backed Houthis.
“Iran was allowed to get rich because Joe Biden allowed them to,” Trump told the “Just the News, No Noise” show on Real America’s Voice. “So he could say whatever he wants. But he’s the reason for this. He’s an incompetent president. He’s a compromised president, totally compromised. But he allowed them to get rich.”
“But worse than being rich, because of the money, because of what they have, they will have within a short period of time nuclear weapons,” Trump added. “And that is never something that can be allowed to happen.”
The former president also made it clear he would move to choke off as much income from Iran as possible in order to prevent the regime in Tehran from being able to fund proxy wars and terrorism.
“Iran was broke. They didn’t have any money to get around. I put sanctions on. I put everything on, and told countries, China, many countries, India, France, ‘don’t buy oil … you buy any oil, we’re not going to do business with you. And we’re going to put tariffs on all the products that do get through, We’re not going to do business,’” Trump said, contrasting his policies with those of Biden.
“They didn’t have money for Hezbollah. And this would have never happened, it also wouldn’t have happened because they knew the consequences would have been much different than what you see right now,” he added.
Following contentious congressional testimony from Ivy League university leaders who declined to commit to penalizing antisemitic behavior by students, Trump also expressed his intent to impose financial consequences if he were to be re-elected.
“I would use that power, and I use it very strongly and very powerfully,” he said.
Trump went on to directly dispute rumors and reports that he is considering Haley as a running mate.
“No, I’m not considering anybody at this point,” Trump told the outlet. “Look, I want to win. And one thing I will say, and I’ve watched this for a long time, the vice president has virtually no impact. You can go back all throughout history, whoever the choice of vice president says virtually no impact as to who is going to get a nomination to get elected.”
He went on to say that he and Haley got along well when she was a part of his administration but felt she was being somewhat disloyal when she decided to run against him.
“Nikki, I know very well. And I actually got along with her very well, and she wasn’t going to run. She said I was a great president and she would not run as long as I ran. And then one day, she decided to run. So you know, I thought that was somewhat disloyal,” he said. “… So I was a little bit surprised at that. But that’s a politician.”
