WITH HIS CANDIDACY FOR THE PRESIDENCY

NIKKI HALEY CHALLENGES DONALD TRUMP

"I've never lost an election, and I'm not going to start now"

She is the first of a long list of Republicans who are expected to kick off the 2024 campaigns in the coming months. 

They include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen.

Tim Scott of South Carolina. Joe Biden has said, for his part, that he intends to seek re-election in 2024, blocking any scramble for the Democratic nomination.

Ms Haley has regularly bragged about her track record of defying political expectations, saying : "I've never lost an election, and I'm not going to start now".

Upon her arrival at the UN in January 2017, this political leader, then without international experience, clashed with her hard-hitting formulas on explosive subjects.

"You don't put lipstick on a pig," she says of the Iranian nuclear deal, which she will firmly fight, even if it means bullying some of the United States closest European allies in passing. Some of her partners hail the “pragmatism” of this direct and warm woman. But for others, it is too "ideological" and "disconnected from reality" in its approaches.

A “change of generation”

Abroad, the name of this dynamic and ambitious curator is intimately associated with that of the former president, whose spokesperson she was for two years. 

Although anticipated, this announcement is nonetheless a volte-face coming from this former head of Donald Trump's cabinet, who declared two years ago that she would not challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. 

Changing her mind in recent months, the Republican cited, among other things, the country's economic struggles and the need for "generational change," a nod to Trump's age of 76. years.

Challenge Donald Trump

Stuck in a series of cases, former President Donald Trump, candidate since November 15, did not immediately react to Nikki Haley's announcement.

After going it alone for three months, Donald Trump is gradually seeing the ranks of his Republican rivals fill up. Its former vice-president, Mike Pence, its ex-head of diplomacy, Mike Pompeo, the governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin… 

Many Republicans plan to launch themselves in the coming weeks.

A spokesperson for Donald Trump's foreign policy for two years, Nikki Haley will take care to keep the leader at a safe distance despite everything. As during the debates in 2018 around the appointment of conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, accused of sexual assault: contrary to a large part of his camp, she calls to listen to his alleged victims.

Since the end of Trump's term, the attacks have become much more frontal, with Nikki Haley openly criticizing the president's post-election crusade over alleged unproven fraud. "It's time to appoint a Republican who can govern and win a national election," she told Fox News recently.

For Nikki Haley, the threat could also come directly from her state: South Carolina senator Tim Scott is also very openly flirting with a candidacy. But the spotlight is mostly on Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and rising star of the party. He hasn't officially entered the race either. The battle for the Republican nomination therefore promises to be bitter.

Elected, Ms. Haley would be the country's first female president and the first American president of Indian origin.