Staunch ally Nikki Haley turns on Donald Trump

In a damning interview, Nikki Haley says she is ‘deeply disturbed’ by who Donald Trump has become and admits ‘he let us down.’

Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the UN and a staunch Trump ally has turned on the former president, declaring he “let us down … we shouldn’t have followed him.”

Ms Haley, 49, was once seen as a potential running mate for Trump but harbours her own White House ambitions. She is widely expected to run for president in 2024.

In a damning interview with Politico published on Friday, she said Mr Trump had “fallen so far” that she did not think he could run again for the presidency in 2024.

“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” the former governor of South Carolina said in the interview, which was held days after the Capitol riots of January 6.

“He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at the Republican convention in, 2020. Picture: AFP.

Ms Haley said she was so angry when she saw Mr Trump’s sons Don Jr and Eric call Republicans to action on the morning of January 6, she had to turn the television off. She was particularly appalled at Mr Trump’s attack on Mike Pence during his address to supporters.

“I’m watching the television the morning of the 6th and I see Don Junior get up there,” she said. “And then I hear the president get up there and go off on Pence. I literally was so triggered, I had to turn it off. I mean, Jon [Lerner] texted me something and I said, ‘I can’t. I can’t watch it. I can’t watch it. Somebody is going to hear that, and bad things will happen.”

She said she hadn’t spoken to Mr Trump since January 6. “When I tell you I’m angry, it’s an understatement,” she said. “Mike has been nothing but loyal to that man. He’s been nothing but a good friend of that man. … I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I’m disgusted by it.”

Ms Haley said she believed impeachment was a “waste of time,” and said Mr Trump had already lost his political strength.

“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. He’s fallen so far,” she said. “I think he’s going to find himself further and further isolated. I think his business is suffering at this point. I think he’s lost any sort of political viability he was going to have. I think he’s lost his social media, which meant the world to him”.

Ms Haley argued against Mr Trump’s impeachment on an appearinace on Fox News on January 25, saying: “Give the man a break.”

“I don’t think there is a basis for impeachment,” she said. “They didn’t even have a hearing in the House … They beat him up before he got into office. They are beating him up after he leaves office. I mean, at some point, I mean, give the man a break. I mean, move on.”

Asked by Politico if she regretted not talking Mr Trump down during his campaign to have the election cancelled on false claims it was stolen from him, she admitted that she was “deeply disturbed” by the person Mr Trump had become.

“At the time, I didn’t think (his ‘stop the steal’ campaign) was dangerous,” Ms Haley said. “I didn’t think that there was anything to fear about him. There was nothing to fear about him when I worked for him. I mean, he may have been brash. He may have been blunt. But he was someone who cared about the country.

“Since the election, I’m deeply disturbed by what’s happened to him.”