Since accepting Trump's offer to become the American ambassador to the United Nations, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has walked a fine tightrope within the GOP.
As is clear in a recent Politico profile about her, this balancing act saw her support the former president publicly while apparently bringing frank criticisms of his actions to him in private. As she had formed a friendship with Trump that persisted after leaving his administration in 2018 — making her one of the few to do so and remain on good terms with him — she appeared to be someone he would actually listen to.
However, a key takeaway from that profile is that she is now unwilling to keep up that act anymore as her own political aspirations lie ahead of her.