Nikki Haley called Donald Trump's comments about her husband's military service 'disgusting.' Meet the Haley family.

Tue, 02/20/2024 - 11:30

Nikki Haley with her family announcing her presidential run — Nikki Haley (center) with her family at her 2024 presidential campaign launch event in February 2023.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Former governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley is running for president in 2024.
A campaign ad focuses on her husband, who is on a yearlong deployment with the National Guard.
The couple, who met at Clemson University as teenagers, have two children, Rena and Nalin.

Nikki Haley highlighted her husband, Michael, and his service with the National Guard in a campaign ad.

"When Michael returned from Afghanistan, loud noises startled him," the 2024 Republican presidential candidate says in the video, which was released in December. "He couldn't be in crowds. The transition was hard."

Michael Haley, a major in the South Carolina Army National Guard, was deployed for the first time while his wife was the state's governor. He was deployed again this year — this time to Africa — meaning he will be abroad for much of his wife's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

In June, Nikki Haley joked at CNN's town hall that he "seems to find really interesting times" to be called to serve in the National Guard.

"We're so proud," she said at the time. "Deployments are never convenient, but they're necessary."

After Donald Trump mockingly questioned her husband's military service in February, Nikki Haley called his comments "disgusting" in an interview with CNN.

Here's a closer look at Nikki Haley's family, including husband Michael, their children, and her parents.

Nikki Haley officially announced in February 2023 that she's running for president in 2024.

Nikki Haley visits "Hannity" at Fox News Channel Studios on January 20, 2023 in New York City.
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Haley previously served as the governor of South Carolina and President Donald Trump's US ambassador to the United Nations. She is the last remaining candidate challenging Trump in the GOP primary election.

Political campaigns, and especially presidential ones, thrust the candidate's family into the public eye. Here are some of the faces you can expect to see along the campaign trail.

Haley's parents, Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, are Indian immigrants from Punjab who both worked as teachers and owned a clothing boutique.

Nikki Haley with her parents. She hugs her mom with her dad in the background. — Nikki Haley hugs her mother, Raj Kaur Randhawa, in 2010. Her father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, stands in the background.
Chris Keane/Getty Images

Haley's mother, Raj, studied law at the University of New Delhi. After moving to South Carolina, she earned a master's degree in education and taught in Bamberg public schools for seven years.

Her father, Ajit, earned a doctorate from the University of British Columbia and worked as a biology professor at Voorhees College for 29 years before retiring from teaching in 1998.

The Randhawas also operated a foreign-goods store in Bamberg that grew into Exotica International, a clothing boutique. Haley helped with bookkeeping as a teenager. The store closed in 2008 when Haley's parents retired after 32 years of operating the business, according to a press release from the company.

Born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, Haley has three siblings: two brothers, Mitti and Charan, and a sister, Simran.

Haley was raised Sikh and converted to Christianity before marrying her husband, Michael Haley, in 1996.

Nikki Haley and husband Michael Haley in India in 2014.
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In her 2020 Republican National Convention speech, Haley spoke about the challenges of growing up in a Sikh family in South Carolina, saying that "America is not a racist country," but rather "a story that's a work in progress."

"I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants," she said. "They came to America and settled in a small Southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a Black and white world. We faced discrimination and hardship, but my parents never gave in to grievance and hate."

When she married Michael — whom she met at Clemson University when they were both teenagers — they held two wedding ceremonies, one Sikh and one Methodist.

"I was born and raised with the Sikh faith, my husband and I were married in the Methodist Church, our children have been baptized in the Methodist Church, and currently we attend both," she told The New York Times in 2010.

Michael is a major in the South Carolina Army National Guard.

Nikki Haley and her husband Michael Haley at a deployment ceremony before his military duty in Afghanistan — Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Nikki Haley, Captain Michael Haley, and daughter Rena Haley talk before a deployment ceremony in January 2013.
Rainier Ehrhardt/AP

Michael joined the National Guard in 2006 and was deployed to Afghanistan for 11 months in 2013. His unit, the Agribusiness Development Team, worked to help support local farmers in Afghanistan with growing crops to sustain their communities.

"Seeing him, I felt like I took my first breath in a year," Haley told the Associated Press after her husband returned from his first deployment.

Nikki Haley cries as she hugs her husband Michael Haley after his return from Afghanistan — Nikki Haley hugs her husband, Michael Haley, during a homecoming ceremony in December 2013.
Rainier Ehrhardt/AP

While he was deployed, Nikki and Michael communicated mostly by email, the Associated Press reported.

"There's a lot lost in translation," Michael said. "You don't get the emotion, the humor you get in one-on-one communication on the telephone or physically being there."

He was deployed for the second time in June.

Nikki Haley and her husband, Michael Haley, in Iowa in June 2023.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

In May, the Associated Press reported Michael Haley would be deployed with the National Guard for a second time, this time in Africa. His unit is part of a task force supporting the US Africa Command, Maj. Karla N. Evans with the National Guard told the AP.

Nikki Haley addressed her husband's deployment during her town hall on CNN in June.

"I'm blessed because I have always supported every way he wants to serve his country, and he has always supported every way I want to serve my country. So I'm a lucky girl," she said.

After Trump mocked her husband's absence from the campaign trail at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, in February, Nikki Haley hit back on X, writing: "Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about."

She also told CNN that Trump's comments were "disgusting" and "unhinged."

The Haleys have two children, Rena and Nalin.

Nikki Haley onstage with her children Rena and Nalin — Nikki Haley delivers remarks at her primary night rally in New Hampshire as her children Rena and Nalin look on in January 2024.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Rena was born in 1998, and Nalin was born in 2001. Haley's political career began in 2004, when she was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives.

Rena, 25, is a nurse who graduated from Clemson University (her mother's alma mater) in 2021.

Rena Haley and Nikki Haley — Nikki Haley poses with her daughter Rena Haley at the third Republican presidential primary debate in November 2023.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Rena majored in nursing and minored in psychology, according to her LinkedIn profile. She now works as a pediatric nurse in South Carolina.

Rena married her college sweetheart in a lavish oceanfront wedding in South Carolina in April.

In July 2022, Rena got engaged to longtime boyfriend Joshua Jackson, a math teacher and high school football coach who played on Clemson's college football team as a student.

"He asked…She said yes! And just like that, we have another son. So proud and happy for both of them," Nikki Haley wrote on Twitter at the time.

Rena Haley and Jackson married in a lavish ceremony on April 15 at Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Kiawah Island off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.

"We had the sweetest weekend celebrating Rena and Josh," Nikki Haley captioned a wedding photo on Instagram following the wedding. "Thankful for our sweet family and friends who joined us in supporting and celebrating them. Rena and Josh, we could not be more proud of both of you!"

Nalin, 22, is currently a senior at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Nikki Haley kisses her son Nalin Haley on the cheek — Nikki Haley kisses her son Nalin at the Iowa State Fair in August 2023.
STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Nikki posted on X, then known as Twitter, about helping her son move into his dorm for his sophomore year in 2021.

"Prayers that this year is better than the last Covid year," she wrote. "His class missed out on their high school senior year and freshman college year in so many ways. So proud of him but miss him already. Have a great year Nalin. We love you."

In a February 2023 interview with The Villanovan, Nalin, a political science major, discussed being the child of a high-profile politician and a college student.

"There's always gonna be people out there that will treat you differently, but on the whole, I feel like this community's been very good to me," he said.

When asked about criticism of his mother, he said: "There's nothing she can't handle. I mean, criticism just bounces off of her."

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Nikki Haley called Donald Trump's comments about her husband's military service…