Haley’s husband deploys in Africa as she campaigns for GOP nomination

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Nikki Haley’s husband deployed Saturday for a yearlong stint in Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard, a mission that will encompass most of the remainder of her campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

“He’s always been my rock,” she said after a deployment ceremony for about 200 soldiers at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston. “We have both lived a life of service, and so when he goes off to deploy, my support is completely with him. If I happen to be running for president, his support is completely with me. … We will continue to stay in touch as best we can.”

Maj. Michael Haley is being deployed as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, which the National Guard says is providing support in the Horn of Africa.

The United Nations, where Nikki Haley served as Donald Trump’s ambassador for two years, says that region is facing the worst drought in 40 years, with more than 43.3 million people in need of assistance in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, and more than half of those lacking access to sufficient food.

Last month, a high-level U.N. conference raised less than $1 billion of the more than $5 billion organizers were hoping for to help more than 30 million people in the Horn of Africa cope with the climate crisis and mass displacement after years of conflict.

Nikki Haley, who is also a former South

Carolina governor, has been highly critical of President Joe Biden’s performance as commander in chief. She has spoken out against his administration’s efforts to expand diversity in the military, complaining they were weakening the force and hampering recruitment, though the Army has said the real problem is that many young people do not see enlistment as safe or a good career path.

She has also pledged to make cuts in $46 billion in foreign aid to countries that she says “hate America.”