WASHINGTON — Nikki Haley appears to want to have it both ways in the Republican primary: She’s running as the voice of Republicans looking for an alternative to former President Donald Trump — but she doesn’t want to be labeled an anti-Trump Republican.

In a roundtable discussion with reporters in Washington on Friday, Haley said she was running to help the Republican Party move past Trump and expand its appeal to Americans tired of the nation’s angry and divisive politics.

But after a series of losses to Trump, she cast herself as “a happy warrior” and stressed that her bid was about policy and solutions, not the man she once served under as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

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“Everybody pretty much assumes that this is an anti-Trump movement, and it is actually not,” she said, describing herself as not anti-Trump but “pro-America.” “This is a movement where people want to be heard.”

The Washington event, held in the board room of a hotel in Georgetown, was part of a national campaign swing that has included stops in Michigan and Super Tuesday states across the country before that delegate-rich primary day March 5. Following her streak of losses, including in South Carolina, her home state, Haley has been ramping up her attacks on Trump and his transformation of the Republican Party.

In the wide-ranging conversation Friday, Haley continued her sharp critiques of Trump and President Joe Biden, calling them “two old guys running for president” — a recurring attack — and describing their dual visits to the border Thursday as mere “photo ops” — a jab she made earlier this week.

But in a newer twist, she blasted Trump for his record of holding vendettas and his clutch on the party, suggesting that his obsession with retribution and loyalty had made the Republican Party about one man.

“When Donald Trump said anybody who supports me is barred permanently from MAGA,” she said, “that is saying, ‘if you’re not with me, you’re against me.’”

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, said her run for president had made her understand why so many people have left both parties. But she rejected the notion of running on a third-party presidential ticket with the centrist group No Labels, saying she did not see the group aligning with her priorities.

“I know that they have sent, like, smoke signals that they want me to talk to them, but I’m a Republican,” she said, adding that she would reject a ticket that would require a Democratic vice-presidential candidate. “I can’t do what I want to do as president with a Democrat vice president.” (Nancy Jacobson, the No Labels CEO, has told donors privately that the group will pick a Republican to lead its ticket and a Democrat as the vice-presidential candidate.)

Haley said her campaign has recently outraised Trump’s, revealing that she and her joint fundraising committees had pulled in $12 million in February. But asked if she would stay in the race through the convention, in mid-July, or continue the fight with Trump should she end her bid, Haley said she was focused only on Super Tuesday.

“I am not thinking as far as y’all,” she said.

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