Trump’s star quits

UN ambassador resigns but ‘won’t challenge the president’

NIKKI Haley, a rising Republican star, has announced she is stepping down as US ambassador to the United Nations, but has dismissed speculation that she might challenge President Donald Trump at the next election.

Sitting beside Mr Trump in the Oval Office, Ms Haley said her 18-month stint at the UN had been “an honour of a lifetime” and that she would stay on until the end of the year. A former governor of South Carolina and the daughter of Indian immigrants, Ms Haley, 46, is the highest-profile woman in Mr Trump’s cabinet and has often been seen as a possible presidential candidate.

Ms Haley criticised Mr Trump during the 2016 election campaign but has been the face of his “America First” policies at the United Nations, steering the US withdrawal from several UN programs and ardently defending his hard-line policies against Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs.

Ms Haley said in her resignation letter to Mr Trump that she would “surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020” and would instead support his re-election bid.

She referred to returning to the private sector and some media reports said she had debts to pay off.

Mr Trump said he had five people on his short list for UN envoy, including former White House adviser Dina Powell, a friend of Ms Haley’s.

Mr Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, who is a senior adviser to her father, ruled herself out of consideration via a Twitter post. He had said she would be “incredible” in the role. Mr Trump said Ms Haley had told him six months ago that she was thinking of leaving by the end the year “to take a little time off”. He was effusive in his praise of her.

“She has done an incredible job. She is a fantastic person, very importantly, but she also is somebody that gets it,” Mr Trump said. “She’s done a fantastic job and we’ve done a fantastic job together.”