UPDATE (03/06/2024): Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign on March 6 after losing all but one primary race on Super Tuesday, leaving former president Donald Trump as the last major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Haley did not endorse Trump during a speech announcing the suspension in Charleston, South Carolina. Instead, she called on him to bring people into the conservative cause. The story continues as originally published below:
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is former President Trump’s only major challenger remaining in the 2024 Republican presidential race.
Haley has been inundated with accusations in recent weeks that she supports raising the retirement age for Americans.
Former President Donald Trump said during a town hall with Fox News on Jan. 10 that Haley “wanted to raise the [retirement] age from 65 to 74 [or] 75.”
A campaign account connected to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who recently dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, posted a video on X that appears to show Haley backtracking on a previous statement she made about the current retirement age being too low.
People on social media have made similar claims about Haley’s support of raising the retirement age for Americans.
VERIFY reader Laurie emailed us to ask if Haley said she wants to raise the retirement age if elected president.
THE QUESTION
Has Nikki Haley said she wants to raise the retirement age if elected president?
THE SOURCES
- Nikki Haley’s August 2023 interview with Bloomberg on YouTube
- Haley’s September 2023 speech at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire
- Haley’s comments during the presidential primary debate with DeSantis on Jan. 10, 2024
THE ANSWER
Nikki Haley has said she supports raising the retirement age only for Americans who are currently in their 20s and younger.
WHAT WE FOUND
Haley has said on multiple occasions that she supports raising the retirement age for Americans who are currently in their 20s and younger, but not for older age groups.
Currently, people can begin receiving Social Security benefits as early as age 62. But they are entitled to all of their benefits when they reach their full retirement age, which is 66 to 67 depending on a person’s birth year.
People 65 and older are also currently eligible for Medicare federal health insurance.
Haley addressed Social Security and Medicare reform, and whether she would raise the retirement age, in an August 2023 interview with Bloomberg.
“The way we deal with it is we don’t touch anyone’s retirement or anyone who’s been promised in,” Haley said. “But we go to people like my kids in their 20s when they’re coming into the system and we say, ‘The rules have changed. We changed retirement age to reflect life expectancy.’”
Haley didn’t specify a new retirement age, but said during the interview that “65 is way too low.”
During a September 2023 speech at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, Haley doubled down on her position to raise the retirement age for younger Americans.
She promised to keep Social Security and Medicare “the same for anyone who’s in their 40s, 50s, 60s or older,” but added that she would “raise the retirement age only for younger people who are just entering the system.”
Haley also clarified during the Republican presidential primary debate on Jan. 10, 2024, that the retirement age “is too low if we’re going to look at those in their 20s.”
So, we can VERIFY Haley has said she supports raising the retirement age for Americans who are currently in their 20s and younger. She did not say the retirement age should increase for older Americans.
Haley also has not said what the new retirement age should be in the future.
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