Former President Donald Trump officially buried the hatchet Tuesday night with his two biggest rivals for the 2024 primary: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Both DeSantis and Haley are scheduled to speak at the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday night, as the Republican Party pushes a message of “unity” following Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump.
Haley’s spokesman said last week, when the former South Carolina governor released her deputies to Trump, that the former U.N. ambassador was not invited to the party in Milwaukee. Early reports also suggested that DeSantis was ignored.
But now both Haley and DeSantis have prime-time speaking slots, meaning Trump will likely be in the audience for their speeches.
Haley was the last Republican candidate to remain in the primary after DeSantis withdrew following his embarrassing performance in Iowa and a campaign trip to Haley’s home state of South Carolina.
Former President Donald Trump’s rival Nikki Haley conducts a sound check on stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attends a Moms for Liberty event in Milwaukee on Tuesday ahead of his speech at the party convention, as former President Donald Trump pushes to unify the party
DeSantis immediately endorsed Trump when he left office, despite months of ridicule from the former president.
Trump called Ron “DeSanctimonious” and “DeSanctus” and hinted at the mini-scandal: the Florida governor secretly wore high heels.
At a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump said he thought DeSantis was “wearing skates.” “And by the way, I don’t wear lifts. I don’t have six-inch heels.”
Haley, who finished third in Iowa, remained in the race for another five weeks, much to Trump’s chagrin over her persistence.
She failed to beat Trump in New Hampshire, where independent voters were likely to give her the win.
That night, Trump went off on his former cabinet member, calling her a “fraud” and telling his supporters she had had a “really bad night.”
The former president became even more frustrated when Haley stayed on after the South Carolina primary in late February, losing her home state by 20 points.
Haley finally dropped out of the Republican presidential primary in early March after a disappointing performance on Super Tuesday, losing 14 states to Trump and winning only Vermont.
Initially, she refused to support Trump.
While primaries were held in other states, Haley continued to collect protest votes, including some 157,000 votes in the uncertain state of Pennsylvania.
But when she took up her new position at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, she finally supported the former president.
“As a voter, my priorities are a president who will stand by our allies and hold our enemies accountable. Who will secure the border — no more excuses,” she said at the Hudson Institute.
“Trump has not been perfect on this issue, and I’ve made that clear many times. But Biden has been a disaster. So I’m going to vote for Trump,” she said.
It appears that for now, Haley will only give a speech at the four-day convention and then return.
DeSantis makes several appearances at the convention.
Before his main stage speech on Tuesday, DeSantis attended a Moms for Liberty rally on the sidelines of Congress.
Panelists for the Giving Parents a Voice conversation also included Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, and the attorneys general of Louisiana and West Virginia.
After speaking onstage at the Fiserv Forum Tuesday night to promote Republican unity, DeSantis will attend a breakfast with the Florida delegation Wednesday morning.
Also on Wednesday, the Florida governor will speak at an Iowa Republican Party luncheon in Milwaukee.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is a staunch ally of DeSantis and supported his Republican primary bid against Trump.
That didn’t help much, however, as Trump defeated both DeSantis and Haley in the Iowa caucuses in mid-January.