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ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Nikki Haley vowed to stand with Israel "every step of the way." She promised to "decimate" the Iranian economy. And she called for continued funding for Ukraine as it fights to repel the Russian invasion.
"It's a dangerous world right now," Haley told Republican primary voters gathered inside New Hampshire's American Legion Post No. 7 as a new war raged in the Middle East. "And this is gonna get messier before it gets better."
Less than 24 hours later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told New Hampshire business leaders that the United States should stop funding Ukraine until there is a clear strategy. He was more focused on what he saw as a threat posed by foreign nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border. And Israel, he said, has a right to defend itself.
"I don't think there's going to be a lot we even need to do militarily," DeSantis said of the war between Israel with Hamas. "We may have to provide some additional support like we've traditionally done, but I think mostly it's just the moral clarity to say, 'They don't have to live like this.'"
The Republican Party's White House hopefuls are offering conflicting messages on the mounting foreign policy challenges as a presidential election long centered on domestic kitchen-table issues suddenly shifts its focus abroad. The rapidly evolving dynamics are testing the limits of the GOP's drift toward an isolationist foreign policy and threaten to undermine the party's broader argument that Democratic President Joe Biden has mismanaged U.S. relationships with the rest of the world.
