Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley said Friday that the “past is catching up” with former President Donald Trump as she urged GOP voters to move past the 45th U.S. commander-in-chief, saying he would be a longshot to win the 2024 general election.
“He’s living in the past, and the past is catching up with him in a way that it is causing drama,” Haley told RealClear Politics.
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“And I think it’s been politicized. He’s been abused – the way that he has been treated in office and out of office is wrong,” she added about the legal woes facing Trump, 76. “But the American people need to go forward.”
Haley, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, said voters should “get the fact that this could be challenging for him to win a general.”
The former South Carolina governor also said she considers Trump a “friend” and was “proud to serve” in his administration, but that was then.
“We have to move forward. We can’t deal with the drama that’s following him. We can’t deal with the baggage,” she told the outlet. “We’ve got a country to save.”
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A Trump spokesman responded to RealClear Politics that the former president enjoys wide support among Republican voters.
“Take a look at the polling and how President Trump is by far the overwhelming choice for Republicans [in the primary] and for all Americans [the general]. It’s clear who the most ‘electable’ candidate is,” the spokesman said.
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But Haley, during a town hall in Iowa nine months before that state’s caucus, told residents of the Hawkeye State that they would end up frustrated in 2024 if they stick with Trump and he loses to a 2020 rematch to President Biden, 80.
“There’s a lot of people that are looking at who can win a primary, but if you’re not looking at who can win a general, you’re going get four more years of what you’ve got right now. And you’re going to have a heart attack because you’ll be so upset,” said Haley, who announced her campaign in February.
“The polls you see today are not the polls you will see a year from now.”
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Haley added that it was time for Republicans to face the “hard truth” that it has a problem when the party’s candidate continues to lose the national popular vote.
Trump won the Electoral College vote but lost the popular vote in his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
He lost both to Biden in 2020.
An analysis of recent polling by The Post found that while Trump is increasing his support among Republican primary voters since he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, he remains largely unpopular among Americans overall.
One poll conducted between April 1- 4, after the indictment was filed, revealed that Trump had a 51% to 44% unfavorable to favorable rating, even lower than Biden’s 49% to 45% rating.
Trump is also being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and his handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.