NEWSWEEK.COM 39
Trump aides. And then, more or less si-
multaneously, they all laughed out loud.
However former Governor-and-Am-
bassador Haley wants to characterize
her own ambition, it’s pretty clear
it extends to residing at 1600 Penn-
sylvania Avenue. Having formed an
advocacy group in 2019—Stand For
America—to give her a voice in policy
debates, Haley, like the rest of the GOP, waits to see what Trump
will do about 2024. If he stands down, Haley will be among the
GOP front runners. And even if he doesn’t, she may, friends say,
go for it anyway—and run against her former boss. “I’m not
saying she’s 100 percent all-in at this point,” says a longtime
South Carolina political ally, speaking off the record in order
to be candid. “But January 6 shook her, and disgusted her. She’s
gonna look around pretty soon and ask, 'can I clean up this
mess?' And her answer’s gonna be yes.”the belly,” said a GOP senator who may be mulling a run for the
White House. “Hell, she’s got a furnace in that damned thing.”
This reporter reminded the group that in her memoir, Haley
said she doesn’t consider herself ambitious: she calls it “the A
word.” (“I’ve never thought of myself as ambitious,” she writes,
“at least not in the calculating way people use this word to de-
scribe women.”)
A prominent conservative pundit looked at the senator, who
looked at a big Trump financial backer, who looked at one of theAs an Indian-American woman,
Haley could be a
fearsome challenger
to Kamala Harris
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