Trump turned down meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Nikki Haley

Former President Trump this week declined to meet with Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations and a prospective 2024 presidential candidate, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Politico first reported that Haley reached out to Trump on Wednesday to request a face-to-face meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But Trump turned her down after Haley has spent recent weeks criticizing the former president for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has met with other GOP officials at Mar-a-Lago since leaving office, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and more recently House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.).

Haley left the Trump administration in 2018 and remained loyal to the then-president, backing his reelection bid as GOP insiders predicted she would be a likely candidate in the 2024 primary.

White House officials on multiple occasions had to bat down speculation that Trump might replace then-Vice President Mike Pence with Haley on the 2020 ticket.

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to halt the certification of electoral votes, leaving a police officer dead and dozens injured in the mayhem. Since the riot, Haley has attempted to simultaneously condemn Trump’s role without entirely detaching herself from the former president and his political base.

Haley said at the time that she felt Trump “lost any sort of political viability he was going to have” and questioned whether he would be a player in the future of the GOP.

She has since sought to smooth things out with Trump publicly, criticizing the impeachment proceedings against him earlier this month and penning a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Thursday that blamed the media for divisions among Republicans.

“People feel strongly about Mr. Trump, but we can acknowledge reality,” she wrote. “People on the right can find fault with Trump actions, including on Jan. 6. Right or left, when people make these distinctions, they’re not trying to have it both ways. They’re using their brains.”