Haley’s comet could rise to be a potential threat to Trump
Nikki Haley’s abrupt and unexpected resignation from US President Donald Trump’s Administration secured her membership in a singular club — the rare former White House official who leaves Trump’s orbit as a political force who could pose a potential threat to the President.
In a sign of her rising profile, the Ambassador to the United Nations simultaneously announced her resignation at the end of this year while also reassuring Trump that she has no plans to challenge his re-election.
“No, I’m not running for 2020,” she said, seated next to the President in the Oval Office. “I can promise you what I’ll be doing is campaigning for this one. So, I look forward to supporting the President in the next election.”
The blunt statement underscores both the loyalty demanded by Trump and the political complications Haley could pose to the President.
At 46, Haley has built her own political brand and has a long potential career ahead of her. The former South Carolina Governor mixes homespun Southern charm with hard-boiled political savvy — a daughter of immigrants boasting both executive experience in her home state and foreign policy chops from two years as one of Trump’s top diplomats.
“She’s a rising star and he’s king, so there’s always an inherent tension there,” said Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican strategist and Trump critic. “Politically, any star in the party is a threat to Trump because in his Stalinesque way, there’s only one sun god and it has to be Trump.”
For now, at least, Christine Matthews, a pollster who has worked with Republican candidates, said that Haley seems to be leaving the Trump Administration on her own terms and with her personal and political bona fides still intact. “She has served very well and has only enhanced her reputation and I think she’s probably the only person in the Trump Administration who you can say that about.”
Matthews likened Haley to Condoleezza Rice — the Secretary of State and National Security Adviser under President George W. Bush — who was often mentioned as a possible GOP vice-presidential candidate. “She’s one
of these rare people in Republican circles who conservatives and moderates really like and women and men can both agree on. She is somebody who is outside of stereotypical Republican central casting. She’s Indian American, she’s young, she’s both pragmatic as well as conservative.”
Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist, said the challenge for Haley will be how she bides her time, especially if Trump seeks re-election in 2020 as expected. “If she runs in 2024, she’ll have to figure out how to keep her profile active for the next six years, and most politicians can’t manage that.”
The timing of Haley’s exit, less than a month before the 2018 Midterms, struck many in the President’s circle as either savvy or suspect. She leaves with foreign policy credentials, the credibility that comes from navigating an often chaotic White House and ahead of potential political fallout from the November elections or Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. “She’s shrewd, which is good in politics, but you have to keep an eye open,” said Boyd Brown, a former Democratic South Carolina legislator. “She’s coming for you if you are in her way.”
The suddenness and secrecy surrounding her announcement also prompted speculation about her motives. Murphy said: “This was so abrupt and the timing so politically weird that it sure reads like it’s preempting something . . . If it’s the political masterstroke, where’s the landing pad?”