In a statement released on Friday, former President Trump dismissed the notion of selecting Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, as a potential running mate. 

This came only a few hours after Haley appeared to dismiss the possibility of joining his ticket itself, as The Hill reported.

“She is OK, but she is not presidential timber. And when I say that, that probably means she is not going to be chosen as the vice president,” Trump, who is the dominant front-runner for the GOP nomination, said at a rally in Concord, N.H., drawing applause from the crowd.

“When you say certain things, it sort of takes them out of play, right?” he added.

“I can’t say, ‘She’s not of the timber to be the vice president’ and then say, ‘Ladies and gentleman, I’m proud to announce [who] I’ve picked.'”

Haley, who is Trump's closest challenger in the polls in New Hampshire, has stated on multiple occasions that she is not competing for second place in the Republican primary.

However, she has previously declined to explicitly comment on whether or not she would be the former president's running mate.

A group of voters was informed by Haley earlier on Friday that the possibility of her becoming vice president was "off the table." This seemed to be a more emphatic rejection of the concept.

In the Republican primary, where Haley's poll numbers have been slowly climbing over the past few months, there has been a lot of talk that she would be a candidate for the position of Trump's running mate.

A number of Republicans, including the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), had argued that Haley would be an excellent choice to counterbalance the weaknesses of the former president as a candidate.

Several individuals who are close to Trump, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), his son Donald Trump Jr., and former adviser Steve Bannon, have expressed their belief that the selection of Haley as a running mate will result in a revolt among his most devoted fans.

The idea that he was ever seriously considering her was discounted by individuals close to Trump, and there have been recent weeks in which he has made personal attacks against his former Cabinet colleague, including spreading various dispersions about Haley's background.

At the same time that voters in the Granite State are getting ready to cast their ballots in the nation's first-ever primary election, just days after the landslide victory for Trump in the Iowa Caucus, the former president is rallying supporters in New Hampshire.

According to the most current polling average from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Trump continues to beat Haley by a margin of slightly more than ten percent.