Nikki Haley Has Run a Courageous Campaign

Say what you will about Nikki Haley’s ill-starred bid for the Republican presidential primary, but no one can honestly claim she did not spend the interim between New Hampshire’s election and Saturday’s South Carolina contest running as hard as she possibly could against Donald Trump.

Prior to the vote in the Granite State, Haley and every other non-Trump candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination pulled their punches against the former president. To varying degrees, the race to replace Trump featured candidates who refused to risk courting the animosity of the president’s hardcore supporters by levying unalloyed criticisms of Trump’s conduct in and out of office.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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Say what you will about Nikki Haley’s ill-starred bid for the Republican presidential primary, but no one can honestly claim she did not spend the interim between New Hampshire’s election and Saturday’s South Carolina contest running as hard as she possibly could against Donald Trump.

Prior to the vote in the Granite State, Haley and every other non-Trump candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination pulled their punches against the former president. To varying degrees, the race to replace Trump featured candidates who refused to risk courting the animosity of the president’s hardcore supporters by levying unalloyed criticisms of Trump’s conduct in and out of office.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.