Trump vs Haley: ‘I will back Trump because I am a conservative’

Telegraph readers voice who they’re supporting in the race for the Republican presidential nomination

The US election has been captivated by the potential of Donald Trump regaining power, particularly after his “astonishing, historic victory” in the Iowa caucus and his win in New Hampshire. 
Meanwhile, Nikki Haley has growing support from “somewhat conservative” voters, as opposed to the “very conservative” voters – a “significant ideological faction”, Henry Olsen writes in The Telegraph. 
Several Telegraph readers who are US citizens and Republican supporters have revealed who will be getting their vote in the presidential nomination and why, as they look at their policies on issues such as immigration, climate and energy, and education.
Mildred Norris, 83, from Rockingham, North Carolina, believes Nikki Haley is the “best choice we have” for president, and is confident that she will “bring back honesty and decency to our country”.
Although “not perfect”, Norris believes Haley possesses “honour and integrity”.
As part of her reasoning, Mildred refers to Haley’s Confederate flag decision in response to the 2015 mass shooting that killed nine members of a historically black church in Charleston.
Despite previously opposing calls to lower the flag, Haley – who was governor of South Carolina – signed into law a measure to remove the Confederate flag from the State House. 
Norris says that the shifting of Haley’s view amid the furore that followed the shooting demonstrates that the former South Carolina governor “believes in allowing the people to have a say about what they want, not just about what she wants”.
“The consensus was to remove the flag and she had it done,” she says.
In contrast, Norris deems the current government to be “dishonest”, and not “doing the job they should”.
“Education has been dumbed down. The pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and the government are out of control. They are padding their pockets and not caring about the people who were born here in the US,” she continues. 
On immigration, Norris believes “we can welcome immigrants but not in this haphazard way that is going on now”.
“Everyone is getting into the US. It’s fine for people to come legally, but they do not deserve to be given housing, money, food, a driving licence, or be allowed to vote until they can speak English and get a job paying their way.
“I am 83 and still work as I teach at a university online. My social security and Medicare  – that I worked and contributed to –  are being threatened because Congress and the president are giving our benefits to people who have not earned it,” she continues.
Norris advocates Haley’s support of a wall and her opposition to amnesty. 
She also agrees with Haley’s comprehensive plan to secure the border which includes adding at least 25,000 border patrol officers by eliminating other government jobs, a pledge she voiced when visiting the southern border last April.
Whereas the Biden administration, Norris feels, “looks out for themselves and not the good of our country or people”.
Additionally, Norris endorses Haley’s plan to “save Social Security”, which she sees as “going broke”. 
“If we do nothing like Trump wants to do, everyone will have to take a 23 per cent cut in benefits in ten years”, whereas Haley “has proposed raising the retirement age only for workers in their twenties”. 
Norris believes Haley will “make a difference so everyone can have a better life today and in the future”.
Finally, she appreciates Haley’s consistency in her purpose and her views, in addition to her clarity in how she will make things happen such as restoring rights and departments to the states.
“She has insisted that most topics need to be determined by the consensus of all the people involved. She wants America to follow the Constitution that was established to help make the US better.”
As well as holding the executive credentials, Norris feels Haley has “the ability, the knowledge and the strength to bring ethical and legal principles back to the White House”.
Telegraph reader Stuart Anderson, a long-time conservative activist, outlined why he will be “without question” voting for Donald Trump in the US presidential election. 
Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Anderson describes himself “as holding views typical of someone on the Right of the US Republican Party”. 
That is not to say he has faith or trust in the former president, but if Trump is elected again, he will proceed with low expectations and hopes to be pleasantly surprised.
Now happily retired and approaching his 81st birthday, what is most important to Anderson is “to make the Republican Party as consistently and ardently Right as the Democratic Party is Left. Bringing that transformation about is how I spend my time and money”.
Anderson applauded Ron DeSantis for capitulating, and wrote: “Well done Ron! No sense beating this dead horse of a campaign any further.”
He later told The Telegraph he is voting for Trump “to be a sort of caretaker president until conservatives have a chance to nominate a DeSantis in 2028”.
He explained: “I will back Trump because I am a conservative. I want the Biden administration to end as soon as possible, and a Trump victory is the only way to bring that about.”
Anderson regards Trump as a “blowhard” who is “ignorant regarding the workings of government, while being basically non-ideological – he will say and support anything that serves his personal short-term interests”.
However, he will “sullenly back Trump” for two reasons. 
One, for his “seemingly visceral hostility to climate change fanaticism”, preference for fossil fuel production, and antagonism towards government subsidies for alternatives to fossil fuel.
Two, for his opposition “to cultural Marxism and its attempt to undermine Western culture” – for “it attempts to undermine devotion to family, religion and country, as well as change the cultural norms of Western civilisation.” 
Although Anderson does not expect Trump, if elected, to “do anything dramatic about any of this and will be pleasantly surprised if he does”.
He suggests “any Democratic administration will be a Left-wing administration so as a conservative my default is the Republican nominee who in this case, unfortunately, happens to be Trump”.
As the election draws closer, he will “have to go and vote for Trump for the third time” and pray “there are no debates that give Trump a chance to act like a madman like he did in 2020”.
Philip Wallace, a self-described “enthusiastic non-Democrat”, shared that Donald Trump would be the “logical choice” for US president, but “that does not mean I intend to vote for the man… or his opponent”.
The aerospace engineer told The Telegraph he would prefer the “safe choice” of Trump in power than a Democrat, who he suggested needs monitoring – “you have to constantly be vigilant”.
He continued: “Frankly, a private citizen can’t keep up with all the reshaping of society [the Democrats] want to do.”
A believer in the “American Experiment”, Wallace supports the Republicans – even though they are “mainly looking to help business friends via some favourable policy” but there are “watchdogs enough to ensure no overt corruption”.
“In other words, I can leave the Republicans as stewards, but the Democrats have to be watched too much… and they won’t listen anyway,” he said.
Wallace went on to explain that the Democrats “don’t ask before making major changes, and sometimes those major changes aren’t highlighted in election campaigns”.
Living in the state of Georgia, Wallace was a Democrat voter until around 1994, when, “like many Americans”, he realised there was “something rotten to the core in the state of that party”. He “grew to realise they didn’t love the US in the same way” that he did.
Before the 2016 presidential election, Wallace suggested the US would “have to elect Donald Trump so we can impeach Donald Trump”.
He explained that he “both understood his appeal as someone who would fight, and felt its call as others did”, but simultaneously “was appalled at that time by his bullying and egotistical nature”.
At Ohio’s polling station in 2016, he approached “sort of planning to vote for Trump, but not thinking him worthy of it” and in the end cast a write-in vote for Fred Thompson, “who was dead by then but whom I had liked in 2008, and would have voted for in the California Primary, but he never made it that far”. 
His reason being he didn’t mind Trump winning, but couldn’t overlook his faults to the point of making excuses for them.
Wallace thought of Trump between 2016 and 2020 as a “breakwater behind whose protective barrier we could build something better amongst the hearts of the people to fight progressivism with, but we didn’t”.
Now, if the choice is between Trump and a Democrat, Wallace hopes Trump wins again because “he’s a more harmless choice, simply because the press won’t carry water for him or cover for him”.
“What Donald Trump wants is your allegiance; what a Democrat ultimately wants is your obedience or acquiescence; and what I think a real statesman should be seeking is your concurrence.”

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