Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, Jr. launch their 2024 presidential campaigns at the RNC

Nikki Haley.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images)

If the first hour or so of the 2020 RNC was all about the transcendent awesomeness of Donald Trump, beginning around 10 p.m. the festivities shifted rather abruptly to an early preview of the 2024 race for the GOP nomination.

First came former UN ambassador Nikki Haley to make a mildly enthusiastic case for Trump's re-election combined with a soft-spoken but severe attack on Democratic nominee Joe Biden for the supposed failures of the Obama administration and the imposition of "socialism" that awaits during a Biden administration that would be led by "Pelosi, Sanders, and The Squad." Haley also flatly informed viewers, as a daughter of immigrants from India, that "America is not a racist country." It was a glimpse of how Haley is likely to sell herself to voters in four years — as a somewhat sunnier and subtler purveyor of Trumpian politics.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.