As the Republican Party heads toward Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, former President Donald Trump has created a stir by criticizing former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's birth name and her performance as UN ambassador.
Friday, Trump took to his "Truth Social" account to try and hang one of his infamous nicknames on Haley. Haley, whose birth name is Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, was styled "Nimbra" in the post. Presumably, as a bookend to the "DeSanctimonious" moniker he's tried to attach to Ron DeSantis.
Governor Chris Sununu, the now failing Governor of New Hampshire, where I am beating his endorsed candidate, Nimbra, by big numbers, and DeSanctimonious by even bigger numbers, should spend more time keeping Democrats from voting in the Republican Primary - How ridiculous is…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 19, 2024
Governor Chris Sununu, the now failing Governor of New Hampshire, where I am beating his endorsed candidate, Nimbra, by big numbers, and DeSanctimonious by even bigger numbers, should spend more time keeping Democrats from voting in the Republican Primary - How ridiculous is that? Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because Nimbra doesn’t have what it takes. She’s weak on China, Russia, Borders, and Crime, but never saw a war she didn’t like. I defeated ISIS, Rebuilt our Military, and brought our soldiers back home. I hope Sununu’s endorsement of Nimbra has more strength than Kim Reynolds’ Iowa endorsement of DeSanctus! How did that work out? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
At a speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday, one day after characterizing her and DeSantis as “very smart people” and “very capable people,” he slammed her as not tough enough to deal with other world leaders.
Trump says Nikki Haley is not smart enough to deal with Putin, Xi, and Kim Jong Un. He adds they are “very fine people” pic.twitter.com/G7U45gOIh4
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 20, 2024
A woman I know very well. A woman who is not capable of doing this job. I know her very well. She's not tough enough, she's not smart enough, and she wasn't respected enough; she cannot do this job. She's not going to be able to deal with President Xi, she's not going to be able to deal with Putin and Kim Jong Un and all the people, they're very fine people you have to deal with.
Trump appointed Haley to her position as UN Ambassador. She served two years. She wasn't fired, and even in the absolutely toxic media environment of 2018, no media claimed that she had been. She announced in October 2018 that she was leaving the UN ambassadorship at the end of the year. While she held the position, no one, least of all anyone in the Trump White House or on the conservative side of the political spectrum, thought she was weak.
HALEY AT THE UN:
Nikki Haley Kicked Some BUTT at the UN, and She Did It in Heels
Nikki Haley Has Become America's Best Ambassador to the UN
BREAKING. Nikki Haley Walks Out on Palestinian UN Representative
Nikki Haley: We're Not Done With Russia Over the Gas Attack in Syria
Trump Admin Gets UN Security Council to Hammer North Korea With New Sanctions (VIDEO)
Nikki Haley Verbally Smacks a Muslim Diplomat - and Other Countries - Accusing the US of Bullying
Nikki Haley Puts China On Notice In the UN (VIDEO)
But, if his indictment is true, then we are required to ask who hired her and why wasn't she fired.
This episode goes to one of my longstanding objections to Trump in a leadership role. Trump's first term featured a churn in the Executive Branch, unlike any administration in history. The sequence of events was always the same. Someone was appointed with great fanfare and then, when they were almost inevitably kicked to the curb, described as low-functioning imbeciles.
Here is a mash-up of Trump's before-and-afters.
Take a few minutes to watch this.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) August 22, 2023
Trump vs Trump on his own hires. pic.twitter.com/OEaS6OVd7m
Table of Contents
Attorney General Jeff Sessions 0:01
Attorney General Bill Barr 0:22
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley 0:34
Chief of Staff John Kelly 0:59
Fed Chairman Jay Powell 1:22
Secretary of Defense James Mattis 1:43
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 2:11
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper 2:34
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao 2:56
This list is by no means exhaustive. If Ian Fleming was right and “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action,” then 10-plus times must qualify as a lifestyle choice.
Other than Jeff Sessions, I don't think anyone on the list was horrible (YMMV), but let's assume arguendo that his assessment after the fact is accurate. What does this say about Trump's judgment, on two levels? First, it calls into question his judgment in bringing into his inner circle people who are such profoundly bad judges of character that they recommend these buffoons in the first place. Second, they serve as a damning indictment of Trump's own ability to judge character and ability.
Trump's first-term problem of hiring and retaining high-quality appointees is going to pale by comparison alongside his problems staffing the Executive Branch for a second term (full disclosure, I will begrudgingly vote for Trump because I don't think the country can survive Biden 2.0). Trump will not only be an outsider, but now he has a track record of impeachment, lawsuits, and prosecutions. Those who served in his last administration have found themselves caught up in financially debilitating legal cases, and they weren't offered jobs by industry, academia, or the think tank world. I think it is fair to assume that the people he finds willing to serve in his administration will be, at best, the same caliber as those in his last. I am willing to bet that most will be substantially worse.
If you know that going to work for Trump carries a lot of downside professional risk and little upside, you're going to attract a lot of grifters. When people know that they will be professionally slammed by the president or ex-president in books and interviews after the fact, that will deter many people from signing on.
Trump frequently says he plans on being "our justice and our retribution," though that promise has recently fallen out of vogue,
BACKGROUND: President Trump Promises Justice and Retribution at CPAC; We Need a Lot of Both
Trump Changes Course, Now Says He Will Not Seek 'Retribution' As President
If that is the case, Trump will need top-quality people to staff his administration. My concern today is that Trump can neither attract nor retain the people he will need to turn this country around. I've seen no evidence that he has learned anything from his first term, and I fear he's in a much worse position to attract talent now than he was the first time around.
Related story: Nikki Haley Puts China On Notice In the UN (VIDEO)
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