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Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley<\/strong> addressed her past feud<\/a> with Donald Trump<\/strong> head-on in her Tuesday night speech at the Republican National Convention<\/a>. Haley, who served as a United Nations ambassador under Trump\u2019s administration, was met with a mix of cheers and boos as she took the stage.<\/p>\n \u201cMy fellow Republicans,\u201d Haley began after smiling in response to her not-so-warm welcome, \u201cPresident Trump asked me to speak at this convention in the name of unity. It was a gracious invitation and I was happy to accept. I\u2019ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period.\u201d The crowd gave her a standing ovation. Trump, after a few seconds, joined in.<\/p>\n Just a week ago, Haley wasn\u2019t invited<\/a> to the RNC, even after releasing<\/a> all of her 97 delegates to the Trump campaign on Tuesday, months after officially dropping out<\/a> of the race in March.<\/p>\n Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and one of the only<\/a> Republican women to ever participate in a presidential debate, used her ten or so minutes on the RNC stage to talk to those who supported her campaign, urging them to shift their votes toward Trump. \u201cWe should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don\u2019t agree with Donald Trump 100 percent of the time,\u201d Haley said. \u201cI happen to know some of them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I want to speak to them tonight,\u201d she continued. \u201cMy message to them is simple: You don\u2019t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him. Take it from me; I haven\u2019t always agreed with President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, their disagreements\u2014often deeply personal\u2014dominated the Republican primary.<\/p>\n On the campaign trail, Trump said<\/a> of Haley, \u201cIf you think that birdbrain, I mean Nikki, becomes president,\u201d to laughs from his crowd, \u201cshe\u2019s not going to fight like we fight.\u201d Back in January, Trump claimed<\/a> that Haley \u201cis not capable of doing this job. I know her very well, she\u2019s not tough enough, she\u2019s not smart enough, and she wasn\u2019t respected enough. She cannot do this job.\u201d The former president also critiqued<\/a> the style of one of Haley\u2019s dresses and mocked<\/a> her given<\/a> first name, Nimarata.<\/p>\n Like Trump\u2019s newly announced<\/a> running mate<\/a> J.D. Vance<\/strong>, Haley has also had her fair share<\/a> of negative things to say about the former president. In a July 2023 interview<\/a>, where Haley vowed to back Trump if he got the nomination, she said, \u201cWe can\u2019t have, as Republicans, him as the nominee. He can\u2019t win a general election.\u201d Haley has also referred<\/a> to Trump as \u201cunhinged\u201d and \u201cdiminished,\u201d questioned<\/a> whether he was \u201cmentally fit\u201d enough for the job, and said<\/a> that \u201cAmerica can do better\u201d than a nominee who had to pay<\/a> writer E. Jean Carroll<\/strong> more than $83 million in defamation damages for lying about sexually assaulting her in the \u201990s. \u201cThis may be his survival mode to pay his legal fees and get out of some sort of legal peril,\u201d Haley said<\/a> of Trump\u2019s campaign in February, \u201cbut this is like suicide for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n After a will-she-or-won\u2019t-she<\/a> endorsement drama following the end of her campaign in March, Haley finally committed to supporting her opponent in late May. \u201cTrump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they\u2019re just going to be with him,\u201d she said<\/a>. \u201cAnd I genuinely hope he does.\u201d And in June, the two reportedly<\/a> shared a call for the first time since she left the race. Haley described it as a \u201cgood conversation,\u201d and added that there had been no discussion of a campaign role for her, nor information about her attending the RNC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n