Nikki Haley breaks with Trump in stunning rebuke: 'We shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him'

Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, believes that former President Donald Trump "let us down."

Haley's remarks come as the former president's legal team prepares to present its defense of Trump during his second impeachment trial in the Senate.

What are the details?

In a Politico interview published Friday, Haley, former South Carolina governor, said that "we shouldn't have followed" Trump.

"We need to acknowledge he let us down," she said in an extensive profile. "He went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again."

She also told the outlet that she has not spoken to Trump since the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, and takes issue with his remarks condemning former Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to reject the Electoral College vote.

"When I tell you I'm angry, it's an understatement," she expressed. "I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I'm disgusted by it."

The former ambassador, who many people are speculating may run for the White House in 2024, also added that Trump will never accept the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"There's nothing that you're ever going to do that's going to make him feel like he legitimately lost the election," she explained. "He's got a big bully pulpit. He should be responsible with it."

Haley also warned that many people still love the former president and will not stop supporting him just because he is out of office.

"I know how much people love Donald Trump," she admitted. "I know it. I feel it. Whether it's an RNC room or social media or talking to donors, I can tell you that the love they have for him is still very strong. That's not going to just fall to the wayside. Nor do I think the Republican Party is going to go back to the way it was before Donald Trump. I don't think it should."

Haley added that people, instead, should "take the good that he built, leave the bad that he did, and get back to a place where we can be a good, valuable, effective party."

"[I]t's bigger than the party," she insisted. "I hope our country can come together and figure out how we pull this back."

Anything else?

Referring to Haley's possible 2024 ambitions, Politico's Tim Alberta wrote, "Since last fall, I've spent nearly six hours talking with Haley on-the-record. I've also spoken with nearly 70 people who know her: friends, associates, donors, staffers, former colleagues. From those conversations, two things are clear. First, Nikki Haley is going to run for president in 2024. Second, she doesn't know which Nikki Haley will be on the ballot."

Haley also said that she didn't believe Trump had a chance of winning in a 2024 election scenario.

"I don't think he can," she admitted. "He's fallen so far."

"I think his business is suffering at this point," she added. "I think he's lost any sort of political viability he was going to have. I think he's lost his social media, which meant the world to him. I mean, I think he's lost the things that really could have kept him moving."