Haley Will Make America Strong Again
Why Nikki Haley is the best candidate to restore strength at home and abroad
Over the past few months, I’ve traveled extensively and have spent time on the ground in Australia, Hong Kong, Panama, Colombia, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil. Over the course of those travels, it’s become crystal clear to me that America faces a set of foreign policy challenges unlike those of the past. American weakness has destabilized the world, and what we desperately need today is a strong leader who understands the unique geopolitical dynamics facing the United States. That person is Nikki Haley.
Make no mistake, the United States and China are at war. While the war has so far been played out as a technology race, currency war, space race, trade war, and narrative war, Beijing’s increasing belligerence and aggressive expansionism should alarm every American citizen. When America is united and strong, our enemies take notice. When we’re divided and weak, they take advantage. The United States needs a unifier who can restore American strength.
The wars in Ukraine and Israel are hot fronts of the US-China war. Beijing and Tehran continue to support Putin’s war in Ukraine while Iran’s support of Hamas has been funded through oil sales to China. And while military conflict is currently contained to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the potential for conflict in South America is high and Beijing is salivating when it looks across the Taiwan Strait. The Belt and Road Initiative has enabled China to de facto hijack institutions such as the United Nations. Global multilateralism is dead.
I’ve spent enough time with Ambassador Haley to know that she’ll stand up to those who want to see America fail, confront China as needed, and most importantly, restore global respect for the United States. She believes in a doctrine of peace through strength. As Ronald Reagan once warned, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction” and that’s exactly what’s at stake. American values are being tested and we need a leader who can rise to the challenge.
Ambassador Haley has been a strong fighter for American values, both personally and professionally. She coordinated the global effort to impose the strongest set of sanctions in history on North Korea. She stood up for Israel, pushing hard to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. She also called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics while highlighting China’s global ambitions.
What I appreciate most, however, is that Ambassador Haley doesn’t apologize for American values. For those that fear she’s a warmonger, let’s not forget her husband is currently deployed. She understands on a deeply personal level the sacrifices our soldiers and their families make to keep the world safe for democracy, freedom, and individual liberty. She appreciates that a strong and capable American military can deter wars, while retreat and surrender may inspire them.
Unfortunately, the threat from China is not just overseas. China has been flying spy balloons overhead, buying up farmland, stealing intellectual property, setting up intelligence gathering efforts off our coast, and killing Americans with fentanyl. They’ve addicted our children to Tik Tok, something Congressman Michael Gallagher, who chairs a committee focused on China, has called digital fentanyl. Chinese disinformation efforts are ubiquitous, their fingerprints are on numerous cyber-attacks, and they’re developing brain-altering weapons which they may already have tested against our diplomats.
Ambassador Haley understands the link between strength abroad and strength at home. A strong American economy – one that provides opportunity for all – will unleash the unrivaled power of American ingenuity. It will enable and support the risk-taking entrepreneurial spirit that has led to the best technological advances the world has ever seen. But she also knows that China often steals our breakthroughs. Like me, she’s an optimist and knows that if we let America be America, free of Chinese influence, our best days lie ahead.
Nothing I’ve said above is unknown. So let me add something new, something about who Nikki Haley is as a person. My wife and I have a daughter with special needs who realized this summer that she’ll be able to vote next year. She was eager to meet Nikki, having met several of the other candidates (side benefit of being in New Hampshire!), and asked to do so for her 17th birthday. Nikki not only took a few minutes to meet with her, but did so outside the limelight of cameras, press, or any media. She was warm, caring, and so genuinely present that minutes after meeting her, my daughter triumphantly declared “You’ve got my vote!” Nikki hugged her, the way only a caring mother could.
Nikki Haley is the best candidate to restore American strength at home and abroad. We need someone with compassion and respect, someone who understands we have more in common as Americans than identity politics suggests. We need someone that won't embarrass America on the world stage. We need Ambassador Haley. While it’s taken me a bit longer than my daughter to come to the same conclusion, I’m happy to declare that Nikki Haley has my vote.
Vikram Mansharamani was a candidate for the US Senate in New Hampshire in 2022. He’s the author of the forthcoming The Making of a Generalist: An Independent Thinker Finds Unconventional Success in an Uncertain World (Outfox Publishing, 2024).
About Vikram Mansharamani
Vikram Mansharamani is an entrepreneur, consultant, scholar, neighbor, husband, father, volunteer, and professional generalist who thinks in multiple-dimensions and looks beyond the short-term. Self-taught to think around corners and connect original dots, he spends his time speaking with global leaders in business, government, academia, and journalism. LinkedIn has twice listed him as its #1 Top Voice in Money & Finance, and Worth profiled him as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. Vikram earned a PhD From MIT, has taught at Yale and Harvard, and is the author of two books, Think for Yourself: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence and Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst. Vikram lives in Lincoln, New Hampshire with his wife and two children, where they can usually be found hiking or skiing.