'She Is Pathetic': Nikki Haley Faces Backlash After Saying Donald Trump Needs to Work Harder to Appeal to Women Voters Despite Endorsing Him

Nikki Haley may have given a glowing endorsement to Donald Trump, but she still thinks he has work to do in order to win the vote.

On a Monday, September 9, appearance on Fox & Friends, the former presidential hopeful told Brian Kilmeade that she believes both Trump and running mate J.D. Vance need to "change the way they speak about women."

"I have made it clear to him, a couple of things — one, that he needs to go out and ask for the vote of conservative and moderate Republicans, suburban women, independents, conservative Democrats — this is going to be a tight election," she said. "He needs to go say, ‘I need your vote.'"

"And the second thing is, I’m on standby. I’m happy to be helpful," she continued. "I don’t want to see Kamala Harris win. He’s the candidate — he can decide whether he needs my support or not."

When asked specifically why Harris has a "14-point lead" among women, Haley called out Trump and Vance's negative comments about the vice president, from claims that she is unintelligent to Vance's remarks about "childless cat ladies."

"You don’t need to call Kamala dumb. She didn’t get this far just by accident," Haley added. "You don’t need to go and talk about intelligence or looks or anything else. Just focus on the policies."

"When you call even a Democrat woman dumb, Republican women get their backs up too," she continued. "The bottom line is, we win on policies, stick to the policies and leave other stuff — that’s how he can win."

While Haley was vocal about her criticisms of Trump, the 52-year-old faced backlash on social media for her controversial decision to support him anyway.

One X user wrote, "Nikki Haley, who was given the nickname 'birdbrain' by Donald Trump, suggests he should not call VP Harris 'dumb' and focus on policy for the first time in his life."

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A second person appeared to reference the sexual abuse and defamation case E. Jean Carroll won against Trump, penning: "Nikki Haley thinks female voters will overlook Trump's sexual assaults and focus on his policies."

A third user said, "She is pathetic," and a fourth added, "Glad to see that she has her priorities straight."