Nikki Haley reveals she'll vote for TRUMP in November, but gives her Republican rival a warning as he prepares for rematch with Joe

Nikki Haley has dramatically announced she will vote for her Republican rival Donald Trump in the 2024 election in a huge U-turn from her comments slamming him when she dropped out of the presidential race.

The former South Carolina governor confirmed on Wednesday she would back the opponent who called her a 'bird brain' and mocked her dress because President Joe Biden is a 'catastrophe'.

In the shock reveal after months of silence, she also had a warning for her old nemesis if he fails to reach out to her supporters he's called 'RINOs'.

She made her choice known in a Q&A at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington where she came to deliver a foreign policy speech. 

'As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who's going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account. Who would secure the border – no more excuses,' she said at the Hudson Institute.

'Trump has not been perfect on these policies, I have made that clear many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump,' she said. 

She also mentioned 'support for capitalism and freedom' and said we need a president 'who understands we need less debt, not more debt.' 

Voting for Trump: Nikki Haley announced she will be voting for Donald Trump in November

'Having said that I stand by what I said in my suspension speech,' Haley said. 'Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they're just going to be with him,' she warned. 'And I genuinely hope he does,' she said.

If Haley does manage to persuade her fans to back Trump, it could mean millions more votes in his rematch with Biden in November. 

Haley was the last Republican standing after a brutal primary campaign. It ended with her ramping up her attacks on Trump, who ridiculed her as 'bird brain' and repeatedly mocked her.

On Wednesday she once again called on Trump to respect her supporters, following multiple statements by Trump that he didn't need them. 

Her comments come as Trump has surrounded himself with loyalists, bringing many to his Manhattan hush money trial, with fewer signs of publicly courting his former rival.

Haley also had a warning for Trump when she ended her campaign after Super Tuesday in March after losing her home state.

'It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,' she said. 'At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.' 

Haley had top staff members in the audience for her speech, where she used a teleprompter for formal remarks. She didn't address the campaign until asked about it by interviewer Peter Rough.

Haley's support comes after a skein of former primary rivals have endorsed Trump, who was in court this week for the Stormy Daniels hush money trial in Manhattan

Campaign manager Betsy Ankney, who was there, wouldn't say if Haley would take part in other campaing activities when asked by DailyMail.com. 

'I will let her comments speak for themselves,' she said.

Trump, who leads Biden in national polls and in key swing states, has been mum about potential vice presidential prospects.

One contender, Doug Burgum, attended Manhattan Criminal Court with Trump. Others reported to be on his list, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have been defending Trump against criminal prosecution.

Trump has publicly dismissed the idea that he needs to court Haley's supporters, even as voters have continued to cast 'zombie' ballots for Haley even after she dopped out of the race.

'She got very few voters,' told Scripps television days ago. 'And those voters are all coming to me, and you may have a lot of Democrats in there because they have a very tricky little system. But those voters are coming to me. 

Haley is one of a long line of politicians who gotten behind a rival despite past verbal attacks, but the blasts between her and Trump grew increasingly personal as Trump began to view her as his primary threat.

He went after her husband, Michael, who was with Haley in D.C. and who she said was home from his deployment in Djibouti.

Trump mocked her for her husband not being with her on the campaign trail.

Haley called the remarks 'disgusting' and 'unhinged' during a CNN appearance. 

'If you don't respect our military, how should we think you're going to respect them when it comes to times of war, and prevent war and keep them from going?' Haley said. 'If you don't have respect for our military and our veterans, God help us all if that's the case.'

'The most harm he's ever come across is whether a golf ball hits him on a golf cart,' she said on the trail in South Carolina. 'And you're gonna go and mock our men and women in the military?'

Trump also mocked Haley's birth name of Nimarata, calling her 'Nimbra' online. He also mocked the dress she wore in a New Hampshire speech where she angered him with a victorious tone.

'I said, wow, she's doing a speech like she won. She didn't win. She lost,' Trump said in his own speech, in Nashua. 'Let's not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night. She had a very bad night.' 

Haley's remarks Wednesday came after she didn't even mention Trump in her prepared remarks, where she went after Biden as well as House Republicans who voted against emergency funding for Ukraine and Israel. 

Rough asked Haley on national security issues, who did she think would do a better job in the White House, Biden or Trump. 

Although she took months to get there, Haley followed a path by other rivals, including many who Trump had gone after. Former Vivek Ramaswamy immediately endorsed Trump and was with him in court in New York. Sen. Tim Scott took heat for falling behind Trump and standing behind him on stage after exiting the race.

Haley has been taking the months since she dropped out to recharge.

'You knowm it was weeks that I was sleeping 10 to 12 hours a day,' she said. 'I mean, the first thing I did was catch up on my sleep. I quickly got back to running, which I missed during the campaign,' she said. I was able to go and spend time with my parents who live with us and get Michael back home from deployment,' she said. 

'I suspended, truly, with gratitude,' she said. 

Her statement that Trump has 'not been perfect' on policies she only hints at the gulf between them on some issues.

Since she served as Trump's UN ambassador, Trump blasted foreign aid and said President Biden's Ukraine package should be a loan. Her call for understanding the need for 'less debt' casts aside her campaign complaint that the debt rose by $8 trillion during Trump's tenure. 

(The debt has also climbed under Biden). 

Haley credited the leadership of House Speaker Mike Johnson on Ukraine, and he was critical to moving a multi-billion package through the House, but that happened with substantial Democratic support after House Republican opposition threatened to sink the package. 

Haley blasted Biden for withholding 'critical weapons from Israel,' a reference to the pause on 2,000 pound bombs, even amid support that Biden calls 'ironclad.' She accused him of 'surrender' in Afghanistan.

She said many Republicans in Congress 'tried to push Ukraine off of a cliff.'

She said 'Republicans are wrong when they say we have to fix the border before doing anything else.' The main GOP negotiating position was that Biden had to agree to fix migration problems at the border before allowing a Ukraine package to go through.