Republican Party’s transformation is complete. It is united behind Trump

Milwaukee: She said Donald Trump was a chaos agent. Unhinged. Couldn’t win the election.

But four months after she ended her bitter battle against him for the Republican presidential nomination, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley appeared at the party’s national convention to finally endorse him as their candidate.

Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s past political rival, endorses him at the Republican National Convention.Credit: Bloomberg

Walking onto the stage to a mix of cheers and boos – with Trump politely giving her a standing ovation from across the room – Haley began by telling the crowd she was there to unify the party at the former president’s request.

“It was a gracious invitation, and I was happy to accept,” the former United Nations ambassador said. “I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my full endorsement.”

With four months until the election, Haley’s conversion was exactly the kind of message the Trump campaign wants to convey.

The Democrats – led by an 81-year-old president in whom many no longer have faith – are in disarray, while Trump’s Republicans are more united than ever.

Trump listens to his former nomination rival, Haley, speak during the convention.Credit: AP

Indeed, if the first night of the convention was designed to showcase the resilience of a man who narrowly avoided death just days before, night two was intended to reassert his strength as a leader.

Haley’s appearance capped off a day when many of Trump’s one-time rivals for the nomination also lined up to support him.

Among them was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was once viewed as the future of the Republican Party until his campaign for the White House bombed spectacularly in the first round of the Iowa caucus.

“America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” DeSantis said, in reference to the 1989 comedy centred on a dead man who is propped up as if he is alive.

Also on the bill was biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran against Trump but was one of his staunchest defenders and will inevitably be rewarded with a spot in his cabinet should the former president be re-elected in November.

“Success is unifying. Excellence is unifying. That’s who we are as Americans,” Ramaswamy said.

And Texas senator Ted Cruz was there, too: he was Trump’s biggest rival in 2016, but refused to endorse him that year after Trump repeatedly insulted his wife, called him “lyin’ Ted”, and fuelled claims that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

“I worked hand in hand with president Trump to secure our border,” Cruz said. “It’s real simple. He’s done it before, and he’ll do it again.”

Haley’s appearance was the most notable, however, given the bitter rivalry they once shared and her refusal to back Trump when she dropped out of the race after the Super Tuesday contests in March.

He’d called her “bird brain”, spread conspiracy theories about her heritage and questioned why her husband, Michael – then deployed in Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard – was never by her side.

She, in turn, put him in the same boat as President Joe Biden – too pale, male and stale – and reminded voters that he had a history of losing. Republicans lost the 2020 presidential election, they lost the midterm elections in 2018 and they lost the midterms in 2022.

But politics is a fickle business, and Haley has returned to the fold – albeit by pointing out that there are conservatives who are still sceptical of the former president.

Haley speaking on the second day of the Republican National Convention.Credit: AP

“We should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100 per cent of the time. I happen to know some of them and I want to speak to them tonight,” Haley said. “Take it from me, I haven’t always agreed with president Trump. But we agree more often than we disagree.”

She also repeated a message she regularly pushed during the primaries: that a vote for Biden was a vote for “president Kamala Harris”.

“After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true,” Haley said. “For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.”

Haley on board.Credit: Matt Golding

She played her part. Maybe for the sake of unity, and maybe for the sake of her own personal ambition in the years to come.

Trump, meanwhile – who was once the most galvanising force for Democrats and the biggest source of division for Republicans – has officially realigned the party via his own MAGA movement.

Two years after the US midterm elections – over which he was blamed by his party when the expected “red wave” failed to materialise – he has consolidated his leadership, triumphed in the primaries, secured the presidential nomination, won immunity from the US Supreme Court, and has now cheated death.

It’s a remarkable comeback story. And if there was ever any doubt that this is Donald J. Trump’s party, it ended on Tuesday night.

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