Disclaimer: I went for a memey title, but hear me out. Also, I want to stress this is a theory, not something I think is reality...just something that could possibly be real. I don't think it's the likeliest explanation, but it's something that popped into my head. We'll see what happens if she drops out today, too.
What this comes down to is the age old question: Is an organization - in this case the GOP - more evil, or more stupid? Essentially, are they running things competently?
They don't seem to want Trump. But they know swapping him out would be a disaster. What if Nikki Haley is a sacrificial cutout to try to dampen the blow? Here's my idea: They're pushing Haley to stay in, precisely because she's hated but, if Trump gets taken out one way or another, they're not going to put her in as the candidate, even if she's still in the race...they're going to swap back to DeSantis, who recovered some of his popularity after dropping and endorsing Trump, and was also polling higher. It would make the whole process seem much more palatable to some. I personally don't think it would be enough, but it's certainly better than running Haley.
Essentially, Nikki Haley is in the race to be hated, so the GOP can stab Trump in the back and swap back to DeSantis or something, and pretend it's for the good of the people and the party.
And, since I know we probably still have some DeSantis fans, I'm not even saying he's in on it in this hypothetical situation. He could be, in one version, but it's certainly not required. Dropping out and endorsing Trump was a fairly natural move, and is in no way a condemnation on DeSantis.
No matter what happens, this election cycle is going to be a chaotic mess. The cleanest option is somehow a Trump v Biden rematch. Anything else gets even stupider, and even less representational.
That would be a very smart 5D chess move.....so probably not the truth.
The Republican party without MAGA or Trump are idiots focused on short-term personal enrichment than any long term plan or goals. If they were, they wouldn't have weakened themselves to essentially have Trump takeover, they'd have a clear line of succession after turtleneck and that guy who was speaker wouldn't have been so humiliated.
I'm more worried about dems assassinating Trump than any plan from the Republicans, the most they could be is accomplices..
I always go for the Sun Tzu approach of see the enemy you respect and even I've been struggling to apply that with all of the fuckups they've been making recently. It was an extremely dumb move to persecute Trump the way they have and the way they've been reacting to the Muslims sperging over Palestine has been pathetic.
It's almost like they're completely paralysed and don't know what to do. As if they actually thought that even amongst normies political persecution on that level is going to fly when so many people bought into democracy in the first place. I have to wonder if even they're scared that Trump is going to win regardless of their ballot harvesting and other shady practices. Them trying to shove a crazy out of a van with an assault rifle at this point would be a sign of total desperation.
I don't see why they would be concerned.
In 2020, Biden was declared the winner 4 days after election day. Worst case scenario, they have to string it out for a full week this time around. Who's going to stop them from bringing in however many boxes of fake ballots it takes for them to get the desired result? Nobody.
Who's going to ensure signature verification is done properly? Nobody.
Who's going to get a real audit done in time to expose the fraud? Nobody.
I don't enjoy being black-pilled fwiw. I would love to be wrong.
I plan to put a large wager on the Democratic nominee for the emotional hedge. Not that I'll be excited to win that bet. But I might as well get something out of being fucked in the ass.
I don't think that's how they'd do it. Again, if you attribute any level of competence to them, which is getting harder and harder to do.
Their best move, if they want Orange Man out of the way, is something more subtle like poisoning. Trump's an old man; unless they want major conflict, they'd take him out in a way that can be written off as 'old man dies of oldness.' Heart attack or what have you.
Even if they killed Trump I think it would turn him into a martyr at this point, Muslims have gone full mask off, the leftists have sided with Islam fully over Palestine which is just funny. Anybody in the centre or the right with any balls is going to go no to all of it in any capacity.
Farmer's revolution is now in full swing across europe. What exactly do they have? They know there would be a huge backlash over conscription. The virtue signallers online are probably going to cry about it but people like me aren't going to sit around and take it because conscription is a major red line issue for me. I do think we're finally starting to see peak clown world which is amazing, the question is what the elites are going to do in order to maintain power.
I think the left siding with Palestine is the only sane thing they've ever done
The irony being their reasons for doing so are still insane.
If they do that, id expect it to happen after the inauguration. That way they can use Trump's popularity to install whoever they put on the ticket as VP.
I hate to sound cynical, but let's be real: Trump is a fat 79-year-old man. He will go to his apotheosis soon enough one way or the other (which is why it's so stupid for them to go to war with him, unless their true reason is to deter future challengers to their power).
By assassinating him, they will make him a martyr who belongs to the ages. Nothing would be better for the Trump movement. He'll be to the American Republic what Gracchus was to the Roman Republic, as he in some sense already is.
I agree but think of it this way:
Given ALL the actions they have done so far, do you think they aren't dumb and spiteful enough to try ANYWAY?
Heh. Fair point, although I don't think it's exactly at 5D chess levels; it's basic underhanded in-party election...guiding, which is pretty on brand for either party.
Again, I agree, but also think "win current election but without Bad Orange Man" can still be considered a short-term personal enrichment goal. And it's retarded, so still absolutely on brand.
I'm not worried about the Republicans or their plans; it's going to be what it's going to be, and if they want to make our system into even more of a joke, that's on them.
As to assassination, it's a concern, but I don't think a major one. So far their assassination attempts have been contained to the lawfare field, and it's likely - but not certain - that it will stay there.
I will say, I wish Trump was better at surrounding himself with competent people. A man of his means...it should be very hard to take him out without causing a major ruckus, but I don't trust he has things locked down to the point where he couldn't easily be poisoned or otherwise made to just drop dead seemingly from natural causes. So anything is possible.
The "birds aren't real" to "Bird Brain isn't real" pipeline is real.
Jokes aside:
Evil, particularly those (Turtle Mitch, that bint up in Maine) that are Uniparty to the core.
Does she have enough time in the day to fuck that many more people in the back of an SRX? That seems to be her M.O. for campaigning.
AND, I wouldn't vote for that globalist shitbag just because she has an R next to her name (and a D in her) anyway, and I'm sure a lot of other people wouldn't either.
That's a perfect way of putting it.
Not any more evil than anyone else.
They are more malicious. They are prepared to destroy the Republican Party to prevent Trump (who we all no is effectively a reformer) from gaining power because they are so scared of losing power.
Rishi Sunak is an excellent example of what they want from a Nikki Haley presidency. A one term punching bag who will endorse and pass all available Left-wing legislation. Progressive legislation will run the country into the ground, the party will be purged of populist movements (or effectively die), and then the Progressives will claim that they have a unanimous mandate to push even MORE progressive legislation to solve the problems that the faux-conservatives created by endorsing earlier progressive legislation. The 400 year old Tory party may die. It is actually the oldest political party in history AFAIK. And that is preferrable than allowing any other candidates the opportunity to win any possible seat.
The RNC is desperately trying to kill itself to defeat Trump. He SHOULD get the nomination, but I can't promise you he will. Nikki Haley is systematically destroying Republican data integrity by populating it's primary voter roles with Democrats. She is burning all available Republican donor money that would still "vote Red no matter who". She was funding her campaign with RNC funds. The RNC is effectively bankrupt, and we are exactly 8 months from election day. That is why Trump is selling over-priced shoes. He's raising money outside the party to fund himself.
The next step is that if they Republicans can't keep Trump from the nomination, they will lose every available lower seat possible. Same thing happened in Richard Nixon's campaign.
Trump winning the election in a landslide won't mean shit if him and his VP are impeached and removed by a Democratic house and Senate before 100 days into his presidency. Then the house majority leader (who would be a Dem) can be president. The current gambit is to make sure that the Republicans can't win any lower race, particularly in the house, guaranteeing a Dem presidency regardless.
In the mean-time, Nikki Haley is suicide bombing her career with the nomination process, corrupting internal data, bankrupting the RNC's budget, dissuading corporate donors, and doing everything in her power to cause the Republican party to be unable to win this or other elections.
The Republicans are full on: death before victory; because they are the uniparty, and they are scared shitless that someone might fire them from their cushy DC position.
I think the eGOP are happy to lose and be the minority party so they can grift their base on what they'll do if they ever get back in charge. So if Trump falls they'll pretend to care about it while they support everything the Democrats want (Ukraine etc) since they are all the same Uniparty.
Letting a Nikki artificially represent the party in that scenario is another "win" in terms of diversity if nothing else.
Both parties enjoy swapping out who is the minority party. Brings in more cash donations being second.
Haley is the perfect candidate for the GOP. They don't want to win. They just want that cushy fake opposition job where they can rake in money by pretending to oppose the Dems.
This is actually true for all 'opposition' parties in the West.
It never is an ideological struggle. It's a struggle between ins and outs. Those who are outside the gravy train want in, and those who are inside don't want to surrender their cushy positions.
Is she like a hologram or a ghost?
No, she's a real person, just not a real candidate.
She's an op, obviously. The only primary she's won is the fucking DC swamp.
But she'll be the only one left when Trump gets taken off the board, and the RNC will happily nominate her. The RNC is more concerned with euthanizing the Trump wing than they are with winning the election.
That motherfucker...
On the contrary, it would be a great victory. They care far more about their power within the party (and their party's obedience to establishment orthodoxy) than they do about the party's power. The ideal situation for the GOP would be a landslide, or even an narrow, Trump defeat. Second best is a defeat under Haley.
In case this sounds odd to you, in the UK Labour Party elites were actively sabotaging the party under Jeremy Corbyn, so that it'd lose and they could blame it on him - so that they could seize power for themselves. The only problem is that they could possibly be blamed for the loss, which is why all RINOs now support Trump (unfortunately).
The 'democracy' that works best is the one where people can choose between two clones, one with the R label and one with the D label.
Me getting shot in the head would be better than the GOP running Haley.
While you are probably not correct about this specific instance, I do think this happens a lot. The whole Democrat-Republican thing is an example of this. YES, YOU SHOULD HATE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS I AM, BECAUSE THEY DIFFER ON THESE THREE TINY, INCONSEQUENTIAL ISSUES! That makes you end up on the side of the likes of Eyepatch McCain.
Depends on what you call 'fan'. My extremely important and significant opinion as an anonymous European is that Trump should be the nominee, and that DeSantis is the best governor in the US. He's a bit too neoconny for my taste, but he's a shining gem compared to what the GOP has offered in previous cycles.
The regime has made a lot of unforced errors. Their best move would have been to try to beat Trump fairly, and to contain him even if he won - as they very successfully did in his first term. With those absurd indictments, they discredited trust in their justice system and made it possible that Trump would actually do something about their entrenchted power in a second term. Trump being Trump, it's very doubtful, and it's doubtful anyone can take on powers of such magnitude, but it's still very dumb!
I've seen some speculation that her campaign is being used to gather data on potentially reluctant republican voters or "Never-Trumpers" who might not vote in November. The idea is that their info could be used in potential fortification efforts.
Honestly I don't think anyone in the GOP hierarchy is that smart. At the federal level they're all a bunch of yippy purse dogs tied to the wrist of the DNC.
So you think it's all kayfabe?