On September 15, 2018, Nalin Haley, then a teenager, posted his first pictures on Instagram.
The images showed him standing between Donald Trump and his mother behind the scenes at the United Nations.
As Nalin spoke with the smiling president his mother looked on beaming proudly, and she later liked the pictures on social media.
But six years on, the dynamic between the three has changed dramatically, and in a very unexpected way.
In 2024, Trump and Nikki Haley fell out spectacularly as she challenged him for the Republican nomination, with the two representing the America First and globalist neoconservative wings of the party.
During the campaign, Nalin dutifully appeared with his mother at events and supported her.
However, since Trump's triumph he has broken family ranks, espousing his own views which tilt heavily toward, and even go beyond, those of Trump's MAGA base.
The younger Haley set out his evolving political agenda - which includes ending legal immigration - in a bombshell interview with Tucker Carlson last week.
Nalin Haley has called for America First policies as fellow Gen Zers struggle to get jobs
Haley said Americans should not be allowed to have dual citizenship
His America First, anti-globalist positions appeared to be born partly out of the financial desperation facing Gen Z.
The clarion call he issued hit its mark and he is now being declared the rising face of MAGA.
'Nalin Haley is going to quickly rise to become the face of the male Gen Z Right-Wing,' the self-described American nationalist Evan Kilgore wrote on X, a post viewed nearly half a million times.
'He is extremely well spoken and has based views on immigration and foreign policy. This kid is going places.'
Indeed, but what must his anti-Trump mother think?
If Nikki Haley has any secret concerns she is not showing them, and has expressed a fierce pride in her son.
In her only comment on the matter so far she said in an email to the Wall Street Journal that she and her husband, military officer Michael Haley, had instilled independence in Nalin and his older sister Rena.
'Our goal was to teach our children to have a deep faith, a strong work ethic and to think for themselves,' she wrote. 'We are proud of the strong, intelligent people Rena and Nalin have become.'
Haley continues to like many of her son's pictures on Instagram, although seemingly not ones where he is posing shirtless.
The generational diverging of family views is unusual, according to polls, which suggest the vast majority of young people follow their parents' ideologies.
A study carried out by the Pew Research Center in 2019 found 81 percent of teenagers with Republican parents were Republican, and for Democrats the corresponding result was 89 percent.
However, it is noticeable that for families in public life, the same rules often seem not to apply, with children of famous politicians often growing up and crossing the aisle.
Nalin is the latest in a long line of political scions who have branched out.
In recent years, the Democratic Kennedy clan condemned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he joined Trump's Cabinet as health secretary.
Relatives variously called him a 'loser,' 'underqualified' and 'addicted to attention and power.'
After endorsing Trump, Kennedy responded: 'My family is... I understand that they're troubled by my decisions. I love my family.'
If Nikki Haley has any secret concerns she is not showing them, and has expressed a fierce pride in her son.
In her only comment on the matter so far she said in an email to the Wall Street Journal that she and her husband, military officer Michael Haley, had instilled independence in Nalin and his older sister Rena.
'Our goal was to teach our children to have a deep faith, a strong work ethic and to think for themselves,' she wrote. 'We are proud of the strong, intelligent people Rena and Nalin have become.'
Haley continues to like many of her son's pictures on Instagram, although seemingly not ones where he is posing shirtless.
The generational diverging of family views is unusual, according to polls, which suggest the vast majority of young people follow their parents' ideologies.
A study carried out by the Pew Research Center in 2019 found 81 percent of teenagers with Republican parents were Republican, and for Democrats the corresponding result was 89 percent.
However, it is noticeable that for families in public life, the same rules often seem not to apply, with children of famous politicians often growing up and crossing the aisle.
Nalin Haley graduated from Villanova University last year after studying political science
As he launched himself into public life, Nalin indicated a liking for JD Vance as a 2028 presidential candidate because he agreed with 'many of his policy positions.'
However, he suggested Vance should 'work on his charisma, aura and likability.'
He added to the Wall Street Journal that he supported his mother because she was 'in it for the right reasons.'
Haley studied political science and graduated from Villanova University, the Catholic institution in Pennsylvania where Pope Leo is also an alumnus.
Earlier this year, having been brought up Protestant, he converted to Catholicism. Vance also famously converted to Catholicism.
Haley did not respond to Daily Mail requests for comment. But the foundation of his platform appears to be the economic struggles of Gen Z and how to counteract them.
'My friend group from high school, all graduated, great degrees from great schools,' he told the UnHerd website.'It's been a year and a half,and not one of them has a job -not one.'
In the interview with Carlson, Nalin said he did not 'feel represented by anybody.'
He went on to suggest an America First agenda that would include naturalized citizens not being allowed to hold public office.
Dual citizenship should be abolished, as should the ability for Americans to serve in foreign militaries, he said.
He said that legal migration should be stopped, along with H-1B visas, and foreign aid should end.
'Naturalized citizens should not be able to hold public office,' he said. 'Growing up here is a big part of understanding the country.'
'We need to stop and limit the amount of foreign students who are coming to universities.'
'Some of them are spies for foreign governments. But it is just that we should put our kids first.'
In a marked contrast to his mother's aggressively pro-Israel stance, he argued that America should slash aid to the country.
'And if they want a better relationship with the United States, they need to stop interfering in our politics,' he told Carlson.
'And it's not just Israel. I mean, we need to ban foreign aid. We should not have a single dime going to another country when we have people in poverty with bad schools, medical debt, all that stuff. It makes no sense. That's part of America first.'
In the days since, Haley has received a lot of applause from young MAGA conservatives, and a lot of vitriol, on social media.
His response was to post a meme on Instagram of an alligator slamming a basketball with the caption: 'Whoever prayed on my downfall pray harder.'
So far, his mother appeared not to have 'liked' that one.