For fans of the classic movie Gladiator – and who isn’t? – there’s a scene near the beginning of the historic action drama detailing the mostly-fictional but believable tale of power struggle and succession in ancient Rome, where the elderly and dying Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius (in 180 A.D.), privately informs his son, Commodus, that the 19-year-old won’t be inheriting the throne.
“Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?” Marcus expectantly questions his (grown) boy. “Yes, Father”, Commodus replies. “You will not be emperor”, Marcus reveals.
The great man’s negative declaration was clearly not anticipated by the next-in-line (by birth) to Roman rule, by which Commodus then breaks down and whimpers and embraces his father so tightly that he purposely suffocates his dad. As you would expect, the brutal but bloodless murder is crucial to the plot, the son’s ambition and quest for dominance getting the best of him.
Though it’s highly doubtful that Donald J. Trump made his announcement to Nikki Haley -- that the former South Carolina governor and Trump administration U.N. Ambassador would not be his running mate for 2024 -- in such a manner, he still avoided any Commodus-like retribution.
Thus, there will be no Shakespearian tragedies transpiring in today’s Republican Party.
Trump’s statement, made via his TRUTH Social account, came as no surprise to those who’d followed the 2024 Republican presidential primary “race” (if you can call it that), second-place finisher Haley having all-but taken herself out of serious consideration for the veep slot by hanging on to her campaign far longer than her respective state finishes would allow her. This, and for saying an awful lot of disparaging things about the man who clearly was destined to win the nomination.
In the process, Haley appeared bitter, petty and a bit childish, a corporate establishment-supported shill who collected enough money and anti-Trump backers to permit her to linger long past her political shelf life, a fact that hasn’t endeared her to anyone but the token few hangers-on in the discredited Bush elite wing of the Republican party.
In an article titled “Trump kills any notion that Nikki Haley could be his running mate”, Alex Miller reported at The Washington Times earlier this week:
“Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was also the last Republican presidential candidate standing in the way of the ex-president’s push to retake the White House, was reportedly being considered as Mr. Trump‘s vice presidential pick. But Mr. Trump swiftly shut the door on the idea on his social media platform Truth Social.
“’Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well! DJT,’ Mr. Trump said. The pair have had a frosty relationship since Ms. Haley launched her now-defunct presidential campaign. Her name had not been seriously considered for the veepstakes until Axios reported that Trump world insiders said she was under serious consideration.
“But crossing her name off the list does not help much in trying to narrow down who exactly Mr. Trump will tap to be his running mate. The ex-president has said that he would make his choice closer to the GOP’s Republican National Convention in July, similar to how he chose former Vice President Mike Pence to be his running mate.”
None of this would merit a headline but for the rampant speculation that Trump was allegedly holding secret talks with Haley to unite the feuding GOP factions and theoretically represent a virtually unbeatable ticket heading into November. At least that’s the way the pundits staged it, probably hoping to gift themselves something to talk about for a couple months – or until the Republican convention in July.
But realistically speaking, Trump was never going to tap Haley for the position anyway. As mentioned above, Nikki was particularly mean and nasty in the final month of her campaign this year, and, in addition, refused to outright endorse Trump when she finally did quit. Former rival (Florida governor) Ron DeSantis hadn’t waited to back the frontrunner, but Haley chose to.
So, what did she expect? Judging by Haley’s entitled public temperament, plenty.
Just as Gladiator’s Marcus Aurelius’s decision (that Commodus would not be emperor) was an unwelcome shock to the neophyte would-be Roman ruler, here’s guessing that Trump’s very public airing of his campaign’s elimination of Nikki Haley from consideration for his vice president must have come as a surprise to her. Usually, such delicate things are done behind closed doors and out of view – to preserve face and mask what surely could be interpreted by the hostile establishment media talkers as lingering bitterness (on her part, of course), but, by releasing the news in the manner in which he did, Trump also sent a message.
After all, Trump could’ve always just let the rumors persist and then selected someone else when the time arrived and no one would have ever been the wiser. No, it’s likely that Trump was strongly suggesting to Nikki that she wouldn’t be getting any future assistance from him to satisfy her ambitious plot to one day be president of the United States.
Otherwise, why would Trump have directly informed the voters that Nikki was not going to be the one? Trump also might’ve wanted to release the news to squelch further gossip that Haley was a sure-thing, thereby giving false hopes to the establishment that they would have a voice in the Trump 2.0 administration as well as get a head start on fundraising for the “favorite” for the 2028 party nomination.
It's a poorly kept secret that the GOP bluebloods aren’t enjoying their finest hour. Not only were they wholly unsuccessful in mounting a serious challenge to Trump in the party primaries this year, they look to be on the outs in the potential next administration and don’t possess much negotiating leverage with a lame-duck Trump to include some of their wishy-washy spines in his new gig.
A much smarter Trump has already let it be known that he would double down on ensuring that dedicated MAGA-loyalists would only be welcome from now on. Further, Trump won’t hesitate the next time around to purge the insider bad apples from his sphere if they step out of line. Woe be to the one who leaks or turns all-Benedict Arnold on the 47th commander in chief.
But why jettison Haley now? It’s the operative mystery.
To be fair, Haley, and the rest of Trump’s 2024 intra-party challengers, badly miscalculated as to the effect that the Democrats’ numerous lawfare suits would have on the former president’s popularity, within the party and to the public as a whole. Remember how the non-Trump field was asked during the RNC’s “official” debates as to whether any of them would not support Trump if he ended up the nominee and were convicted by a jury and possibly imprisoned?
Chris Christie practically rolled over in his haste to thrust his rotund hand up there, doing so quickly as to convince the viewers of his newly adopted holier-than-though nature as above politics. In the process, Christie looked more like he was responding to his name being called by a maître d’ barking out availability to a casino crowd for all-you-can-eat buffet seating.
The media “moderators” believed that Americans would care about the outcome of these witch hunt trials. The show tribunals did have an effect – they served to increase Trump’s standing. Trump not only kept his GOP lead but opened up some daylight between himself and senile Joe Biden, a president so corrupted, compromised, incompetent, stupid and out-of-it that open-minded voters couldn’t help but conclude that there’s only one legitimate choice in this election.
And as Trump was able to expand his following, it made Nikki Haley’s blessing even less valuable – or even desirable. Even today, liberal establishment media commentators squawk about how Trump hasn’t yet convinced Haley’s voters to join him, yet poll after poll shows the Republican nominee-to-be’s 2024 prospects remaining steady or improving.
Trump’s unprompted veep non-announcement could therefore signal the nominee’s belief that keeping Haley alive as a running mate possibility was no longer necessary. The binary choice between himself and Democrat senile Joe has become even more defined in the couple months since Nikki left the race. What has she been doing? (Note: Haley recently joined the Hudson Institute) She certainly hasn’t gone around publicly playing to Trump’s good side. DeSantis and several other 2024 Republican candidates have been out campaigning or saying nice things about the ticket – and possibly the slot itself. But not Haley.
Just as there was conjecture about Nikki still being in the running for the vice president position, politics watchers are still looking for signs of when – or if – she’ll finally come around to endorsing Trump and whomever he selects to be his political partner. Will Haley follow in the shoes of sore losers like John Kasich, John McCain and the Bush family in 2016 by keeping apart from the party effort, or will she take after what Ted Cruz did late that year and get behind Trump?
I’ve predicted it all along – Haley will pick a time when it’s most advantageous for her to call a press conference and announce that she’s endorsing Trump. Nikki caught the political campaign bug in the year she spent on the trail, and it’s highly unlikely that she’ll pack up her apparatus and quit politics altogether. If she wants to run for president as a Republican in 2028, she MUST endorse Trump.
Otherwise, she’d have no chance to win the nomination, something that would be less and less likely even if she secured the establishment’s running lane four years from now. Trump would never endorse her and the “bench” of possible Trump-successors is stacked.
If I had the position, I would ask her: “Are you ready to do your duty for the Republican Party and America? You will not be vice president.”
Haley could still be useful for the Republican party. But will she do it?
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