Nikki Haley’s Path Back to Donald Trump

To the Editor:

Re “Haley Will Vote for Trump, but Withheld Endorsement” (news article, May 23):

Nikki Haley adds her name to the ever-growing list of prominent Republicans who at one time or another have been on record as being highly critical of Donald Trump, including questioning his fitness for office, and have changed their tune.

What stands out about Ms. Haley, and which makes her cravenness all the more disheartening, is that she presented herself as a serious, thoughtful candidate, one who had no illusions about the myriad dangers that Mr. Trump poses to the country.

Her ultimately falling in line with so many of her fellow sycophantic Republicans to support Mr. Trump, a man whom I suspect many of them loathe in private, speaks volumes about how the G.O.P. has been utterly co-opted in a manner that places political expediency and, in the case of potential vice-presidential candidates such as Ms. Haley, personal ambition over principle and respect for the rule of law.

Mark Godes
Chelsea, Mass.

To the Editor:

Years into America’s flirtation with fascism, it would be easy to roll your eyes and ask yourself, “What did you expect?” at Nikki Haley’s announcement that she will vote for Donald Trump this year.

But every time another politician demonstrates the lack of courage to stand up to the madness embodied by the possible election of Mr. Trump as president again, we move as a nation and a society inexorably closer to the racist, xenophobic world that Mr. Trump inhabits and toward which he pushes us.

True, political courage is rare, and we know that far too well at this point — we know that the Liz Cheneys of the world are far outnumbered by the Marco Rubios, the Elise Stefaniks, the J.D. Vances and now, sadly, the Nikki Haleys. But that fact does not lessen the obligation to call out cowardice when it is visible and when it does damage to the country.