Everyone in the country, but especially Republicans, need to evict Trump from the space in their brains he's been occupying rent-free for the past five or so years. If the party is divided between Trump toadies and sycophants and equally obsessed Never Trumpers, the Democrats will not just win again in 2024, they will win the mid-terms in 2022.
Any Republican should be free to support Trump when he does right, and criticize him when he does wrong. Haley represents what should be the center of the GOP as regards Trump and the future of the party, neither blind to Trump's faults, nor looking for blame in everything he does or did. His behavior after the general election, in particular his feeding his supporters the baseless notion that the Vice President could single-handedly prevent the certification of the election by Congress, and his emphasis on flaws in the election system in the run-up the the Georgia run-offs was as blameworthy as his judicial nominations and Mid-East initiative were praiseworthy. Criticizing him for it was not "stabbing him in the back", nor having done so, is there anything hypocritical in praising him for giving a good speech. Only people with a shallow notion of personal loyalty, very much contrary to republican virtue, think it hypocritical to condemn wrong behavior and praise right behavior from the same individual. Generally applying such a shallow notion of personal loyalty to a leader suggests a cult of personality, unbefitting anyone who truly values liberty.
