Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he believes Nikki Haley will be “on our team in some form,” weighing in for the first time on the former South Carolina governor’s announcement a day earlier that she’d be voting for him.
Asked by a News 12 reporter at his Bronx rally whether there is “room for her on your team, or better yet, your ticket,” Trump replied, “I think she’s gonna be on our team, because we have a lot of the same ideas, the same thoughts. I appreciated what she said, you know, we had a nasty campaign. It was pretty nasty, but she’s a very capable person, and I’m sure she’s going to be on our team in some form. Absolutely.”
Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, said Wednesday that she will vote for him in November, but she did not offer a full-throated endorsement. She instead encouraged Trump to reach out to her supporters, some of whom have continued to cast their vote for her in primaries since she exited the race.
“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that,” Haley said during a Q&A session following a speech at the conservative Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.
Trump on Thursday was reluctant to name his top three vice presidential contenders, but he tossed out a few.
“We have so many, I don’t want to do that,” Trump said. “You could take people like Ben Carson, you could take people like Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance. I mean, there are so many. Elise’s (Stefanik) doing a fantastic job. But I could go on for quite a long time.”
Trump reiterated he is likely to decide on a running mate “sometime during the convention,” which begins in Milwaukee on July 15.
