Nikki Haley highlights differences with Trump on China, fentanyl, national debt

(WASHINGTON) — Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley sought to draw a distinction with Donald Trump, her former boss and the Republican primary front-runner, in a new interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

Appearing alongside New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a top Trump critic who endorsed her earlier this week, Haley said that there were several areas where she and the former president disagree.

Haley has been gaining some momentum in the polls but still trails Trump by double digits. Unlike some other primary candidates, like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Haley has not focused on heavily criticizing Trump’s record or character but often suggests he’ll bring “chaos” back to the White House.

Karl pressed her on that position in the interview, which was taped on Thursday and will air on Sunday on “This Week.”

“At one of your town halls this week, there was a voter that stood up and said, ‘You really need to turn it up on Donald Trump, you need to go after him hard and not just say it’s ‘chaos.’ It’s interesting, because I just heard you say that he was the right president for the right time. What do you say to voters like that that say you really need to draw that line?” Karl asked.

“I mean, you’re one of those too. Y’all want me to either love him or hate him all the time,” Haley shot back.

“I’m just asking you to respond to a New Hampshire voter,” Karl replied.

Haley said that she told the voter that “anti-Trumpers want me to hate him, pro-Trumpers want me to love him” before detailing several fronts where she believes the two do not see eye to eye, ranging from national security to the economy to Trump’s behavior on the world stage.

“There are things I agree with the president on. I had a good working relationship with him. There are things I don’t agree. I don’t agree with the fact that, yes, we had a good economy while he was there but he put us $8 trillion in debt that our kids are never going to forgive us for,” she said. (Tax cuts and the federal government’s COVID-19 response were large factors in that increase.)

In her interview with Karl, Haley went on to attack Trump for his handling of relations with China, arguing that he focused on trade and – though Trump did take several notable actions on opioids — failed to adequately address the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. or the “spy base off our shores in Cuba.”

Haley repeated her criticism of Trump’s praise for Hezbollah, in which he called the Iranian-backed militant group “very smart,” and his swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump’s comments, in the days right after Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel and sparked a war, received widespread criticism.

At the time, a Trump spokesman said in a statement in response that he “was clearly pointing out how incompetent Biden and his administration were …. Smart does not equal good.”

Haley told Karl: “I don’t think you should praise Hezbollah. I don’t think you should criticize Netanyahu when Israel’s down on her knees. I don’t think you should congratulate the Chinese Communist Party on their 70th anniversary [which Trump did in October].”

“I think that when it comes to national security, we don’t praise thugs. We let them know where we stand and we let them know that there will be hell to pay if they do anything against us,” Haley said. “That’s who I am.”

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