Everybody’s covering their bases:
On Sunday morning, Donald Trump appeared on Fox News and teased a 2024 run. “We’re gonna do very well and people are going to be very happy,” he told host Maria Bartiromo.
Later that day, his daughter Ivanka’s in-laws were hosting a private lunch for a would-be rival. According to two sources briefed on the event, Jared Kushner’s parents invited about 20 friends to meet former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley at the Kushners’ beach house on the Jersey Shore. The Kushners’ chef prepared a meal of salad and salmon. At the event, Jared’s father Charles Kushner predicted that Haley would be “the first woman president,” one of the sources said. Some attendees made donations to Haley’s Stand for America PAC. (Charles Kushner did not respond to requests for comment).
Haley has made no secret of her 2024 ambitions. During a speech in New Jersey on Sunday night, Haley said she has “a big decision to make at the beginning of ‘23.” (A spokesperson for Haley did not respond to a request for comment).
If she runs, as many suspect, it will force Jared and Ivanka to choose between Trump family loyalty and one of their closest political allies (When she left the administration, Haley infamously described Jared as “a hidden genius”). Jared and Ivanka were in Aspen over the weekend and didn’t attend Charles Kushner’s lunch, a person close to Jared said. But last month, the couple was spotted visiting Haley and her husband, Michael Haley, at the Kiawah Island beach club in South Carolina. “They think very highly of Nikki. They get along great,” the person said.
Charles Kushner’s Haley lunch is another indication that Haley is aggressively courting religious Jews, who formed a key part of Trump’s base. On Sunday night, Haley delivered a speech in front of 800 attendees at an event on anti-Semitism sponsored by the Chabad of the Shore in Long Branch. Last month, she visited former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Christians United for Israel founder John Hagee.
I can’t say this surprises me. If I had to guess, if Trump wins the nomination in ’24, I’m pretty sure Nikki Haley will end up being the VP nominee. (It sure as hell won’t be Pence.) Anything can happen, of course. Maybe Trump won’t make it to the finish line. He’s 76 after all. If that happened some of the leftover Trump power will fall to the family, so this is smart of Haley on a number of levels.
And Javanka is clearly trying to set themselves up as the “sane” mainstream Trumpers who have no responsibility for the shitshow we just endured.
Never forget.