Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has warned that a “big fight” will go off within former President Donald Trump’s orbit over the possibility that he will pick Nikki Haley as his running mate should he clinch the Republican presidential nomination.
The selection of Haley for the No. 2 slot on the GOP ticket is going to be “one of the fights we’re going to have — a big fight that will take place in the spring,” Bannon predicted Monday while speaking on the “Human Events Daily” program.
“They’re gonna try to force Nikki on the ticket,” he told host Jack Posobiec. “They’ll say ‘Trump needs a woman, Nikki on the ticket, she balances things and she can bring together that 15% of never-Trumpers in the Republican Party.’ We’re going to have to have that fight.
“If Nikki Haley is in this administration in any capacity, it will fail,” Bannon added. “She’s a viper. She’s a viper and once she gets in there, she’ll try to run it as prime minister. She’ll try to be Dick Cheney. Her to Trump will be just like Dick Cheney to Bush. That’s what she’ll try to do.”
Speculation has swirled about whether Haley would accept an offer to be the 77-year-old’s running mate after serving as ambassador to the United Nations for 23 months during Trump’s administration.
Haley, 51, has tried to keep the focus on her current campaign, insisting that she isn’t running “for second.” However, she has not explicitly ruled out the possibility of being Trump’s VP pick.
Others close to Trump — including his son Don Jr. — have also spoken out against including Haley on the 2024 ticket.
“I wouldn’t have her and I would go to great lengths to make sure that that doesn’t happen,” the younger Trump told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling in an interview last month.
“Nikki Haley wants never-ending wars,” Trump Jr. added. “She’s a puppet of the establishment in Washington, DC. She’s the new favorite candidate of the billionaire class because they want control— no different than academia and Harvard and using their billions to exercise influence.”
Former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, another Trump ally, has also expressed strong opposition to Haley.
“I would not only not vote for that ticket, I would advocate against it as strongly as I could,” Carlson told podcaster Tim Pool in December.
Meanwhile, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has said he would advise Trump to choose Haley as his running mate, noting that she is gaining the “anti-Trump vote” in the Republican primary.
Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has also seemed open to the idea.
“Crazier things have happened,” she told Newsmax last month about the possibility of a Trump-Haley ticket. “I would never say never with Donald J. Trump.”
The former South Carolina governor has said that “chaos” and “drama” follow Trump and would limit his effectiveness if he is elected president again. However, she has also said she would pardon him if she was in the Oval Office.
Trump’s camp has ramped up its attacks on Haley as polls show her gaining on him in early states.
The former president has stuck to calling Haley “bird brain” while an allied super PAC, MAGA Inc., recently launched an ad in New Hampshire attacking her for proposing to raise South Carolina’s gas tax while the state’s governor, before advocating the repeal of the federal gas tax during her current campaign.
The Trump and Haley campaigns did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Post.