Jockeying for a possible 2024 run at the presidency, Nikki Haley spoke at a Republican National Committee dinner January 7, 2021.  She said, "President Trump has not always chosen the right words. ... And it wasn't just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history."

Though she went on to credit Trump with some stu­­ff, Haley was clearly trying to walk a tightrope that wouldn't tick Trumpers off too badly but wou­­ld put space between her and the president.  She made it obvious that privately she viewed Donald Trump with impatience, distaste, and even scorn.  Trump made her a national political figure by appointing her U.N. ambassador, and this is her thanks.

Caricature by Donkey Hotey, CC BY-2.0 license

To me and about 75M other Americans, Donald Trump is a hero owed deep respect for his incredible foreign policy accomplishments.  Not only does Kim no longer shoot rockets over Japan, but peace has broken out all over the Middle East.  Either of these by itself is Nobel Prize–worthy as each flummoxed the experts for 70 years.

By not strongly emphasizing just how extraordinary these successes were, Haley piled on the president at a hard time in our history.  She could have said something on the order of, "Trump had his foibles, some greater, some lesser.  So do we all.  He played to win in a hardball league" and segued into her views of issues.  Instead, she twisted the knife in the wound of electoral loss and thievery with nary a word about the threat of criminal Joe Biden taking office.

I used to have a good opinion of Nikki Haley.  Used to.