MILWAUKEE—Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s fiercest rival during the GOP primary, endorsed the former president and called for "unity" in a speech to the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.
Haley’s prime-time speech was a last-minute addition to the RNC schedule and followed reports that she wasn’t invited to the convention until two days before the event.
It signaled a major reconciliation between Trump’s MAGA wing of the Republican Party and his critics in some segments of the GOP establishment, for whom Haley was viewed as a stand-in during the primary. In her remarks, Haley urged Trump-skeptical Republicans to back the GOP nominee, arguing that President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party has "moved so far to the left that they're putting our freedom in danger."
Haley said she was invited to attend by Trump, a sign that he is looking to unify the party ahead of November.
"I'll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period," Haley said. "For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump."
Her endorsement was greeted with cheers from the audience.
"You don't have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him," she added. "I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree."
Haley highlighted Trump’s hawkish positions on foreign policy and immigration as reasons for conservatives to back him.
"As ambassador to the United Nations, I had a front row seat to [Trump’s] national security policies. We sure could use those again," Haley said. "Trump got us out of the insane Iran nuclear deal. He imposed the toughest sanctions ever on Iran."
In contrast, she said, Biden "lifted the sanctions. He begged [Iran] to get back into the nuclear deal. He surrendered in Afghanistan. He sent every possible sign of weakness. Even now, while Hamas is still holding Americans, Biden is pressuring Israel."
Haley called mass illegal immigration the "single biggest threat America faces under Joe Biden. Migrants are coming into our country by the 1,000's every day. We have no idea who they are, where they end up, or what they plan to do."
"Under Donald Trump, we didn't have the border disaster we have today," she said.
Haley served as Trump’s United Nations ambassador from 2017 to 2018. She later expressed concerns about his character, saying he lacked "moral clarity," and ran against him in the primary. She dropped out in March, paving the way for Trump's nomination.