Former President Trump dismissed a report Saturday that claimed he and his campaign were considering former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his former GOP presidential primary opponent, to serve as his running mate in the 2024 presidential election.
“Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.
Trump’s post came after a report from Axios, citing “two people familiar with the dynamic,” claimed Haley was in the running to be Trump’s nominee for vice president.
Haley launched her presidential campaign in February 2023, becoming the first major candidate to challenge Trump, who had announced his candidacy three months earlier. And she was the final rival to Trump, battling the former president in a two-candidate showdown from the New Hampshire primary in late January through Super Tuesday in early March.
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“Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well,” former President Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social. (Getty Images)
Haley announced she was suspending her White House campaign on March 6, one day after Trump swept 14 of 15 GOP nominating contests on Super Tuesday.
To date, Haley has declined to endorse Trump.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” Haley said in March, as she pointed to those who supported her during her White House run.
Haley has not spoken with Trump since exiting the race, a source in her orbit confirmed to Fox News earlier this week.
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Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during her primary election night gathering on Feb. 24, 2024, in Charleston, South Carolina. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In a sign of potential trouble for Trump in his general election rematch with President Biden later this year, Haley continues to grab votes in the Republican primaries even though she’s long gone from the presidential nomination race.
Haley won nearly 22% of the vote in Tuesday’s GOP presidential primary in Indiana, which was open to not only Republicans but also independents and Democrats.
During her White House bid, Haley advocated a muscular U.S. foreign policy to deal with global hot spots such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hamas, often offering a stark contrast with Trump’s America First agenda of keeping the nation out of international entanglements.
Haley traded fire over America’s overseas role with rival Vivek Ramaswamy, an advocate of Trump’s America First philosophy, during the GOP presidential primary debates.
President Trump shakes hands with Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in the Oval Office on Oct. 9, 2018. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)
Reacting to his father’s dismissal of the report, Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, wrote in a post to X, “Oh Thank God!!! Word on street is that her people were floating this bulls— because she has a PAC fundraiser [M]onday and is trying to sell attendance!!!”
Haley is expected to huddle early next week with some of the top donors to her Republican presidential campaign, sources confirmed to Fox News this week. She will reportedly use the two-day gathering on Monday and Tuesday in Charleston, South Carolina, to thank her major contributors.
A Haley source said the former ambassador is not expected to encourage donors to contribute to Trump’s general election campaign and that no endorsement of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is pending.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Kyle Morris covers politics for Fox News. Story tips can be sent via email and on X: @RealKyleMorris.
