Neocon Nikki Haley Launches Bitter Attack on Trump Cabinet Picks — Slams RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard
Nikki Haley, the failed presidential hopeful turned bitter pundit, has once again lashed out at President-elect Donald Trump—this time targeting his cabinet picks.
Despite her previous claims of support for Trump, Haley’s recent comments on her podcast, Nikki Haley Live, show her true colors as a divisive neocon unable to move past her rejection from Trump’s administration.
After ending her failed presidential campaign, Haley continued to assert that Trump was “unfit for office” but eventually said she would be voting for him.
In May, Trump said Haley would “be on our team in some form” after the hawkish former ambassador to the United Nations finally said she would vote for him — but made it very clear that she wanted a role in the administration.
However, President Trump recently announced on Truth Social that neither Nikki Haley nor Mike Pompeo will have roles in his upcoming administration.
“I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” Trump wrote. “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote.
Haley responded to the announcement in a post on X, saying, “I was proud to work with President Trump defending America at the United Nations. I wish him, and all who serve, great success in moving us forward to a stronger, safer America over the next four years.”
I was proud to work with President Trump defending America at the United Nations. I wish him, and all who serve, great success in moving us forward to a stronger, safer America over the next four years. pic.twitter.com/6PhWN6xn1B
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) November 10, 2024
Haley’s response to the news on X was diplomatic on the surface, as she wished Trump’s team success. However, the gloves came off on her podcast.
In a rant that could only be described as sour grapes, Haley lambasted RFK Jr., Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services, and Tulsi Gabbard, his choice for Director of National Intelligence.
Haley criticized RFK Jr., a potential Health and Human Services appointee, for his previous Democratic affiliations, saying:
“He endorsed Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. He said just this past year that he and Trump’s positions, quote, “could not be further apart.” He is strongly pro-choice, wants to go back to Roe v. Wade standards, and allow abortion up until the time of birth.
To summarize, he’s a liberal Democrat, environmental attorney, and trial lawyer who will now be overseeing 25% of our federal budget without any background in health care.”
She further accused Kennedy of lacking experience in healthcare, conveniently ignoring his decades-long advocacy on public health and vaccine transparency—issues that resonate with many Americans fed up with Big Pharma’s stranglehold on policy.
“Some of you may think RFK is cool. Some of you may like that he questions what’s in our food and vaccines. But we don’t know what decisions he’ll make behind the scenes when given the reins of an agency. The Senate needs to ask him hard questions before approving him.”
Haley’s attacks on Tulsi Gabbard were even more inflammatory. She painted Gabbard, a former Democrat turned independent, as a “sympathizer” of hostile nations.
“Now, everybody loves that she is now saying she’s a Republican, but I have always said, let’s look at what they’ve said and what their actions are. DNI, that is the President’s top intelligence advisor. It’s supposed to fairly represent the views of 18 separate intelligence agencies and units. It has authority over a $100 billion annual U.S. spy budget and holds sway over which secrets we declassify. That’s a big deal. This is a job for an honest broker without any pronounced policy biases.
What are the facts about Tulsi Gabbard? She opposed ending the Iran nuclear deal. She opposed sanctions on Iran. She opposed designating the Iranian military as terrorists—those who say “death to America” every single day. She said that Donald Trump turned the U.S. into Saudi Arabia’s prostitute. This is going to be the future head of our national intelligence?
In Congress, Tulsi criticized Trump’s authoritarian strike against Qassem Soleimani. Now, I will remind you, he was considered the master of death in Iran. She said he had no justification whatsoever for killing him. She tried to limit Trump’s war powers against Iran. She tried to cut our annual defense budget so that we couldn’t punish Iran and hinder their influence.
Reminder: Iran is our number one sponsor of terrorism, and Tulsi Gabbard was defending Iran. She went to Syria in 2017 for a photo op with Bashar al-Assad while he was massacring his own people. She said she was skeptical that he was behind the chemical weapons attacks.
[…]
She called for Trump to end the “destructive trade war” with China. So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and she’s defended China. She has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one of them back.
DNI, the Department of National Intelligence, is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, or Chinese sympathizer. DNI has to analyze real threats. Are we comfortable with someone like that at the top of our national intelligence agencies?”
Haley’s criticisms reek of hypocrisy. This is the same woman who once served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations yet spent years distancing herself from his policies.
Her willingness to vote for Trump after her campaign flopped seemed more like a desperate plea for relevance than a genuine act of loyalty.
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