Nikki Haley’s bid for the Republican nomination was not as simple as it has often been perceived. It involved a number of different and conflicting motivations: depicting Donald Trump as unelectable, enticing Trump supporters to consider her candidacy and walking the fine line between challenging Trump and establishing her position as his electoral successor. She had to call him out as a loser over the short term without lodging herself permanently in the anti-Trump camp, three short years before the 2028 presidential election campaign begins in earnest.