Nikki Haley doesn’t understand Republican hatred of a diverse America, says former senior GOP strategist

A former senior strategist in the Republican Party has said that former Trump UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley does not understand the hatred of a diverse America brewing with the base of the GOP.

Accused of flip-flopping on Mr Trump's future in the party, Ms Haley again tried to get back into his good graces after his CPAC speech Sunday. Ms Haley tweeted: "Strong speech by President Trump about the winning policies of his administration and what the party needs to unite behind moving forward. The liberal media wants a GOP civil war. Not gonna happen."

The 2024 presidential hopeful tweeted favourably about the speech despite that it was filled with falsehoods including the fabrication that the election was stolen.

She was rejected by Mr Trump when she tried to get a meeting at Mar-A-Lago after telling Politico: "I don't think he's going to be in the picture, I don't think he can. He's fallen so far," adding that Mr Trump "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”.

Continuing her rollercoaster of statements blasting and supporting Mr Trump, she told Fox News on 26 January that Democrats were wrong for trying to hold him accountable for the Capitol riot.

She said: "They're going to turn around and bring about impeachment, yet they say they're for unity. I mean, they beat him up before he got into office. They're beating him up after he leaves office. I mean, at some point, I mean, give the man a break. I mean, move on."

Read more: Follow live updates on the Biden Administration and the Trump post-presidency

Speaking to CNN, Chief Strategist for George W Bush's reelection campaign in 2004 Matthew Dowd said: "We ran against John Kerry and one of the things we ran against him on was being a flip-flopper. But John Kerry looks like the mountain of stability compared to what Nikki Haley has been doing... But one thing I think we can say she's consistent about that I think this reveals is that she fits right in because that shows that her complete lack of any sort of principles that define her that she can stay and be the centre of her core... She is very much comfortable in an unprincipled party."

Mr Dowd added that she "doesn't recognize what the Republican Party is... The Republican Party created Donald Trump. Donald Trump didn't create the Republican Party today. The reason why he became the Republican nominee is because that's who the Republican Party is. He enjoys 90 per cent favorability rating among Republican voters. They like where he is positioned against what they think is something wrong in America".

The former Republican strategist blasted Ms Haley for completely missing that "what unites Trump voters in the base of the Republican Party today isn't policy, it isn't a set of issues, because they're all divergent".

He said that what really unites the Republican base "is this complete hate of a diverse America," adding that any Republican who takes a stand against Donald Trump doesn't "recognize what the modern Republican Party fundamentally is".

Mr Dowd said that Mr Trump "should be isolated, he should be treated as a scourge or pariah, never to be talked about again and leave him in Mar-A-Lago. But that's not where the Republican Party is".