Haley for VP boomlet fizzles...

Vanity Fair

While Giuliani’s future in Trumpworld has grown darker, Mike Pence’s has brightened. According to sources, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s effort to draft Nikki Haley to replace Pence on the 2020 ticket has fizzled. During her book tour month, Haley stoked speculation that she was positioning herself to replace Pence when she torched Trump nemeses Rex Tillerson and John Kelly while lavishing praise on Trump. (“In every instance that I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with,” Haley said on the Today show.) The thinking was that Haley appealed to suburban women, a crucial demographic Trump fares poorly with.

But Republicans close to the White House told me Haley had made the determination that joining the ticket, or even replacing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, would be a net negative for her 2024 ambitions. “She wants to stay out of politics for the next several years and make some money while maintaining optionality for ‘24,” one Haley adviser said. “Nikki is running in 2024 come hell or high water,” a former West Wing official said. “If Trump loses, she’s already positioned herself as his heir apparent. Why not suck up to Trump. She can neutralize Pence as the Trump person. That’s a huge win.”