SC’s Nikki Haley says she won’t run for president in 2024 if Trump seeks reelection

Former Trump administration official and Gov. Nikki Haley told reporters on Monday that she will support former President Donald Trump should he decide to seek reelection in 2024, foregoing her own possible run for the Oval Office.

“I would not run if President Trump ran,” Haley, who said she has not spoken to Trump since after the election but before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, said on the campus of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg. “And I would talk to him about it. That’s something that we’ll have a conversation about at some point if that decision is something that has to be made. I had a great working relationship with him. I appreciated the way he let me do my job.”

Haley also weighed in on Trump’s off-script remarks made over the weekend during a GOP conference in Palm Beach, Florida.

There, Trump went after Republicans who did not back up his unfounded claims of widespread election fraud that he says cost him reelection and he went after U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, promising to support his primary challenger should he have one.

“I think President Trump’s always been opinionated,” said Haley, who left the Governor’s Office in 2017 after Trump nominated her to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “But I think what he also talked about were all the successes that he had in the administration. And I think that’s what Republicans are uniting on.”

Haley’s comments were made after toured the state’s only public four-year historically Black college nearly six years after she signed legislation to fire the university’s board of trustees and after the trustees fired the former president as the university battled severe financial problems.

That same year, President James Clark took over the university as the college faced losing its accreditation before he was permanently installed by the board.

On Monday, Clark took Haley on a campus wide walking tour, pointing out classroom and dorm building upgrades, introducing her to staff, showcasing specialized degree programs and highlighting university renovations to come, including the bowling alley.

At points on the tour, Clark would turn around, facing reporters, to loudly mention the university’s progress.

Haley told reporters on Monday Clark invited her to campus and she wanted to tour the university to see its progress since then and since the COVID-19 pandemic put even greater financial pressure on colleges, particularly historically Black universities.

“I was calling to check up on the school and see how it was doing and he said, ‘I would love for you to come and see it for yourself,’” Haley said of her conversation with Clark. “I was very proud that he asked me to come, and I think it’s that important.”

People will question why Haley would come to South Carolina State, Clark said.

“Because this is her roots,” he said.

Haley and Clark also remarked on the university’s latest drama.

In March, the college faculty senate voted 18-2 saying they had “no confidence” in Clark or the college’s provost, Learie Luke over declining enrollment, raises that were approved for the university’s top administrators in the middle of a major pandemic and a perceived lack of faculty input on key hires.

“I suspect that if you go to any university, you will find that some members of faculty senate’s have given votes of no confidence at some point in time,” said Clark, describing himself as a “non-traditional president.”

“And, quite frankly, a lot of presidents told me if you don’t get one, that means you’re not pushing for change. You’re not being disruptive enough,” Clark said.

Haley left South Carolina State Monday but not before giving Clark an answer to the cameras.

“Yes,” Haley said when asked if she had confidence in Clark.