How Nikki Haley and Donald Trump stack up on policy

Just how moderate is is the former South Carolina governor and UN envoy when she is compared with the former president?

Nikki Haley with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2018. Picture: AFP

Haley supported restrictive abortion measures as a South Carolina governor, including a 24-hour “reflection period” for women considering the procedure.

Haley supported restrictive abortion measures as a South Carolina governor, including a 24-hour “reflection period” for women considering the procedure.

She also backed ending abortion coverage for rape and incest victims in the state health plan, although this didn’t pass.

During the presidential nomination campaign, she has cast herself as a reasonable Republican, insisting her party requires “consensus” before attempting to pursue a national abortion policy.

She also says birth control should remain legal and women shouldn’t go to prison or get the death penalty for terminating pregnancies.

Trump has campaigned hard against abortion and touts the ­Supreme Court’s ending of the constitutional right to the procedure as a major achievement.

Race

The daughter of Indian immigrants – who goes by her middle name meaning “little one” in Punjabi – has a complex relationship with race. In her 2012 memoir, Haley detailed the racism she and her family faced when she was growing up in the rural South, where her father’s Sikh turban stuck out and the Randhawas had to buy a house because no one would rent to them.

As governor, she supported flying the Confederate flag on state buildings until a mass shooting at a black church made her reverse course. Recent comments that the US has “never been a racist country” and the Civil War was fought over states’ rights rather than slavery triggered outrage.

Climate

Haley acknowledges the reality of human-caused climate change, unlike Trump, who has branded it a hoax. Beyond the rhetoric, there is little daylight between them.

As Trump’s UN envoy, she helped remove the US from the Paris Agreement. Her proposed tax plan involves repealing hundreds of billions in green energy subsidies under Joe Biden’s signature climate law, calling it a “communist manifesto”. She has also promised to speed up fossil fuel drilling and weaken the Environmental Protection Agency.

Immigration, LGBT rights, economics

Echoing Trump, she has called on the US to “close” its southern border and defund “sanctuary cities”. She has proposed sending the military into Mexico to target drug cartels. On social issues, she has said a Florida law that prohibits classroom discussions on sexual orientation or gender identity through third grade doesn’t go far enough, and the ban should extend throughout elementary school. She has proposed increasing the retirement age while maintaining pensions and state-subsidised healthcare for those approaching retirement. It has come under fire from Trump, whose populist politics has shifted some old left-right splits.

Foreign policy

At the UN, Haley made supporting Israel her signature issue, blocking the appointment of a Palestinian envoy and helping to quash a report that accused Israel of “apartheid”. She recently said Palestinians should be sent from Gaza to “pro-Hamas” countries.

Trump has expressed admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He also claims he could bring an end to fighting in Ukraine in “24 hours”. While Trump is an isolationist who believes allies are “ripping off” Washington, Haley backs US military aid to Kyiv.

January 6

Perhaps the clearest split between the two are their positions on the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which Haley called “a terrible day” while acknowledging that Biden won the 2020 election. At the same time, she has indicated she would support Trump if he won the party’s nomination, even if he is convicted of a felony.

AFP