Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night is formally burying the hatchet with his two toughest 2024 primary rivals – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Amb Nikki Haley.
Both DeSantis and Haley will address the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Tuesday night as the GOP pushes a ‘unity’ message in the aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump.
Haley’s spokesperson said last week as the former South Carolina governor was releasing her delegates to Trump that the ex-U.N. ambassador hadn’t been invited to the Milwaukee fete. Early reports also suggested that DeSantis had been snubbed.
But now both Haley and DeSantis have primetime speaking slots – meaning Trump will likely be in the audience during their speeches
Haley was the last Republican hopeful to stay in the primary race after DeSantis bowed out after his embarrassing performance in Iowa and then a hail mary campaign trip to Haley’s home state of South Carolina.
DeSantis immediately backed Trump as he bowed out, despite the former president ridiculing him for months.
Trump dubbed him Ron ‘DeSanctimonious’ and ‘DeSanctus’ and alluded to the mini-scandal – that the Florida governor was secretly wearing high heels.
At a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Trump said he thought DeSantis was ‘wearing ice skates.’ ‘And I’m not wearing lifts, either, by the way. I don’t have six-inch heels.’
Haley, who came in third place in Iowa, stayed in the race another five weeks – irritating Trump with her persistance.
She was unsuccessful in beating Trump in New Hampshire, whose independent-minded voters were most likely to hand her a victory.
That night Trump unleashed on his former Cabinet member, caling her an ‘imposter’ and telling his crowd of supporters she had a ‘very bad night.’
The ex-president grew even more frustrated when Haley stayed in after the late February South Carolina primary, as she lost her home state by 20 points.
Haley finally dropped out of the Republican presidential primary in early March after a disappointing Super Tuesday performance where she lost 14 states to Trump – winning just Vermont.
She initially declined to endorse Trump.
As other states held primaries, Haley continued to garner protest votes – including around 157,000 votes in the battlegound state of Pennslyvania.
But as she assumed her new position at the Washington think tank, the Hudson Institute, she finally endorsed the former president.
‘As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who’s going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account. Who would secure the border – no more excuses,’ she said at the Hudson Institute.
‘Trump has not been perfect on these policies, I have made that clear many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump,’ she said.
As of now, it appears Haley is only delivering a speech at the four-day convention and heading back out.
DeSantis has several appearances throughout the convention.
Before his main stage remarks on Tuesday, DeSantis participated in a Moms for Liberty town hall on the sidelines of the Convention.
The panel members for the Giving Parents a Voice conversation also included Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and the attorneys general for Louisiana and West Virginia.
After speaking on the Fiserv Forum stage to promote Republican Unity on Tuesday evening, DeSantis will attend on Wednesday morning a breakfast with the Florida delegation.
Also on Wednesday, the Florida governor is slated to speak at an Iowa Republican Party Lunch in Milwaukee.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is a close ally of DeSantis and endorsed his Republican primary bid against Trump.
That, however, didn’t do much good, as Trump walloped both DeSantis and Haley in the Iowa caucuses in mid-January.