But if Haley builds support, she might serve Trump’s purposes. If so, I think she becomes his most likely running mate.

And even if she doesn’t, Trump might still select her. Kamala Harris never really got her 2020 campaign off the ground. Yet Biden picked her. Biden himself was barely a footnote in the race for the Democratic nomination in 2028. Yet Obama picked him.

It’s also possible that, if nominated, DeSantis would pick Haley as his running mate. In 2020, Harris was a thorn in Biden’s side, but he selected her anyway.

So if we view Haley’s run as an audition for the second spot on the Republican ticket, her entrance makes good sense. If we view it as a serious bid for the top spot, not so much.

[The difference between Biden, Harris, and Haley is that Haley was a two-term governor, while Biden and Harris were senators. She’d make sense as a running mate no matter what. However, I doubt that she’d be interested in the job, because VPs rarely turn into presidents on their own. Almost every instance is a succession based on death or resignation. George H.W. Bush won Reagan’s third term, helped immensely by Democrats’ nomination of a bumbling Michael Dukakis. Richard Nixon was another exception, but it took him eight years and a meltdown in the Democrat Party to succeed. Haley’s young enough to wait for another cycle if she doesn’t get the nod this time. — Ed]