Biden beat Trump’s ‘chaos’ in 2020 — now Nikki Haley wants to do the same

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has carefully walked the tightrope of criticism against former President Donald Trump during her 2024 campaign, but she seems to have settled on one word: chaos.

“I’ve strongly believed that Donald Trump was the right president at the right time. But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him,” Haley said recently.

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The phrase harkens back to what was once President Joe Biden’s rallying cry during the 2020 presidential election, in which he defeated Trump. Biden framed himself as a return to normalcy, often referring to Trump’s administration as chaotic and painting the then-president as unpredictable.

According to Biden in 2020, just months from the election, Trump was “an incumbent president who makes things worse, not better. An incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order.”

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

(Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)

Trump’s election in 2016 as a political outsider was shocking to many, and his inflammatory rhetoric and unprecedented social media use in office allowed Biden to cast himself as a figure that would be less risky and usher in a renewed sense of normalcy.

Biden ultimately defeated Trump after posturing himself as the comfortable and familiar alternative to Trump’s mania.

“The way Biden won in 2020 was not going too harsh at Donald Trump, so there would be a sliver of Republicans and center-right independents that would vote for Biden because they didn’t like Trump,” explained Republican strategist Susan Del Percio. “That was part of it. The other part was to increase turnout.”

Haley is similarly charged with consolidating the non-Trump vote in the Republican primary while also being careful not to appear unpalatable to voters who are currently supporting the former president but haven’t made up their minds.

According to Todd Belt, professor and director of the Political Management Master’s Program in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, Haley is becoming the “clear Republican alternative to Trump” and now has three tasks to accomplish to be successful. Haley must “consolidate the anti-Trump vote, not alienate Trump voters who might be persuaded to vote against him, and convince Republicans that she has a better chance at defeating Biden than Trump does,” he said.

Using the descriptor “chaos” to characterize the legal troubles and drama that Trump finds himself embroiled in, Belt noted, “Haley did not attack Trump on issues, just on style of governance.” By doing this, “She is signaling to the Republican electorate that she can give them the policy outcomes they want without the craziness of the Trump presidency.” And this, he said, satisfies all three goals.

What’s more, Belt emphasized, the strategy also diffuses Biden’s largest advantage, which is “the distinct difference in governing style between” himself and Trump.

Republican strategist Chip Felkel warned that this is a harder task in the primary than when Biden faced Trump in the general election.

Haley needs to take “the gloves off soon” and go “scorched earth” against Trump if she hopes to leverage support from disaffected Republicans and independents, he said.

Del Percio agreed, saying, “With Nikki Haley, the problem is that she’s been too restricted.”

While Haley is targeting Trump, Del Percio said, “She’s using some very, frankly, polite language. And instead of trying to really take him down, she’s obviously looking at her future at this point.” She claimed Haley seems to be vying for the vice president role in Trump’s second administration.

Acknowledging that Biden’s 2020 strategy was more restrained, she noted, “President Biden is now going after him more aggressively,” adding that Haley should do the same.

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“That’s how you look to beat Donald Trump; you have to go at him full force,” she continued.

Trump still boasts a massive lead in the primary contest polls, which has only grown in recent months, but there could still be room for other candidates to steal support. According to a recent poll of likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa, 49% said their minds were made up for who they plan to caucus for. But an additional 46% said they aren’t completely set on their candidate.