Nikki Haley’s son sees socialist Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York as a symptom of Gen Z pain — and, while he’s a conservative, he blames Republicans for not doing enough to listen to twenty-somethings.
“My friends graduated with great degrees from great schools, and a year and a half later, none of them have a job. And that makes me upset because they didn’t do anything wrong. They did everything they were supposed to,” Nalin Haley, 24, told The Post.
“I think [people who voted for Mamdani are] saying the same things. They just have some different ways to fix the problems. My issue is that the Democrats are listening to the younger people and it’s time for the Republicans to do the same.”
Nalin Haley, son of former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, believes Republicans need to listen more to young people’s concerns. Courtesy of Nalin Haley
Haley, who works in finance in Fort Mill, South Carolina, recently made headlines for his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show, where he shared views on immigration and foreign policy that are notably to the right of those of his mother, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations
But Nalin says the political distance from his mom should not be a surprise.
“I’m just from a different generation, so I have different viewpoints than my mom,” he said. “You have parents with their ideas, and you have kids, and particularly if it’s a conservative household, they are going in a different direction … It’s literally every American household that is Republican.”
Haley recently appeared on the “Tucker Carlson Show,” where he explained his generation’s views. Tucker Carlson /YouTube
Haley has expressed the belief that only US-born citizens should be able to hold office, and described Israel as “just another country” — advocating for an “America First” agenda.
He calls himself a Christian, a populist and a nationalist — and believes his views are typical of Gen Z conservatives.
“I think we are seeing a shift in the economic stances of young Republicans, because … a free market is basically just a lawless market,” he said. “I’m tired of the Republican Party selling itself to elites and corporations while screwing over American workers.”
A Villanova University grad with a degree in political science, Haley believes his generation is far more suspicious of immigration and “the libertarian neoliberal market mindset” that “has not worked out for us.”
The 24-year-old believes his views are similar to many young male conservatives. Courtesy of Nalin Haley
Haley says his family made sure he had a normal childhood, even though he grew up in the governor’s mansion. Courtesy of Nalin Haley
Among his views that have generated lots of chatter: He advocates for banning H1-B visas and limiting legal immigration.
“I don’t view it as responsible to have legal immigration at a time when our economy is fragile and companies aren’t hiring Americans, and AI is taking over a lot of jobs,” he said. “It makes no sense to have foreign workers come here [while] we actually are not hiring our own kids.”
Though his maternal grandparents are immigrants from India, Haley said, “All I’ve ever known is America … I’m not gonna have any sort of weird loyalty to a country where I’ve never been.”
He also says young Republicans are worried about the housing crisis and “corruption with insider trading.” He thinks they’re more traditional than prior generations because they’re growing “tired of modernity.”
Haley said that the Democrats are doing a better job addressing young people’s struggles than Republicans are — which is why Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral race in New York City. AP
On the one hand, Haley seems to be emblematic of a new breed of Gen Z men raised by podcasts — stumping for isolationist policies and populist economics. He has, like many of his peers, recently converted to Catholicism being raised a Protestant.
But he said he limits his social media use to weekdays and only allows himself to tweet twice a day. He insists there are no specific influencers or news sources that have shaped his views.
In fact, Haley doesn’t listen to podcasts at all — he’d never listened to Tucker Carlson’s show before being on it — and said he’s never heard Nick Fuentes’s provocative “America First” podcast, though he has empathy for its followers.
“I think he’s becoming influential because … particularly my generation, they’re very angry,” he said of Fuentes. “When people are voiceless, they look to someone to be their voice.
Haley says that he began to think more independently and question the status quo in his junior year of high school. Tucker Carlson /YouTube
“Instead of getting angry at people for who they choose to be their voice, [we] should instead look to, Why are people angry in the first place? Why do they feel voiceless? What are these problems and how can we fix them?”
Haley says he’s grateful to his parents who “tried to give [him] a normal life” and “did a very good job,” despite growing up in the governor’s mansion. The hardest part of having a parent in politics was seeing his mom derided online.
“Being the son of a politician who is being criticized is a lot harder than when people criticize me,” he said. “She was involved in public service for the right reasons.”
Nalin Haley does not listen to podcasts and limits his time online. Courtesy of Nalin Haley
Nalin said he and his mother don’t talk about politics. But he started to move away from mainstream Republican views in his junior year of high school, fueled by doing his own research online.
“I just started to think for myself, and I wasn’t just accepting what Con Inc” — a pejorative for establishment conservative interests — “or the mainstream media was giving me,” Haley said. “I started [noticing] the things you supposedly weren’t allowed to say.”
That’s when he became an advocate of “smart capitalism that works for the interests of the average person, not just the elites,” and became more suspicious of American involvement in foreign affairs, particularly our relationship with Israel, which he said needs to “stop interfering in our politics” if “they want a better relationship with the United States.”
Surprisingly, Haley has no plans to become politically active and says it was “never my intention to get any sort of platform.” But he does hope to influence the Republican Party to move towards Gen Z’s vision.
“I feel the older generation has written off all of the concerns of younger people. My hope is that [the party] will help my generation be able to have the same opportunities that the prior generations had,” Haley said.
“What I hope is that it embraces a Christian ethic and American nationalism and just economic realism, just being real about the economy, and putting normal everyday American workers first as opposed to the elites.”