Why Nikki Haley fell in line

Late in her primary campaign against Donald Trump — arguably after Trump had sewn up the nomination — Nikki Haley started voicing tough criticisms of his fitness for office. “If you mock the service of a combat veteran, you don’t deserve a driver’s license, let alone being president of the United States,” she said. That rhetoric thrilled voters who are strongly anti-Trump. Since very few of those voters are still Republicans, it was impossible that their support would make her the Republican nominee. But it allowed her to serve as a kind of protest vote inside the Republican primaries.