Haley may have resigned to make money in private sector

WASHINGTON: People close to Nikki Haley insisted there was nothing behind her decision to quit as US envoy to UN other than fatigue after nearly two years in a rigorous job. She also wanted to make her decision known before the midterms to avoid the potential for an embarrassing departure if the vote were to go against the president.

Haley’s joint appearance with Trump and his effusive praise for her made her a rarity among officials departing the Trump administration, whom he often criticises as they go out the door. But the timing irked some West Wing aides, who saw the announcement as taking attention away from the swearing-in of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his first day at the Supreme Court. Soon after her arrival in New York, Haley, the first Cabinet-level UN envoy for a Republican administration since the end of the Cold War, quickly made clear she saw the position as a steppingstone to a higher political office — a possibility that Trump may have resented.

She became a far more visible face of US foreign policy than her first boss, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. But Mike Pompeo, Tillerson’s replacement, has recently reasserted the secretary of state’s traditional role, and with national security adviser John Bolton a sometime antagonist, she had less of a role than at the start of the administration.

In the short term, people familiar with her thinking said that she is likely to work in the private sector and make some money. After nearly eight years in government — six years as governor of South Carolina in addition to her time at the United Nations — her 2018 financial disclosure report shows Haley has at least $1.5 million in debts, including a mortgage of more than $1 million.