HALEY TO RESIGN AS TRUMP’S AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.
President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Tuesday she would resign at the end of the year, marking a high-profile departure of one of the few women in the president’s cabinet.
Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, had been an early and frequent critic of Trump; when he named her to the U.N. job weeks after his election in November 2016, the appointment was seen as an olive branch. As ambassador, Haley has been an outspoken and often forceful envoy — someone whom foreign diplomats looked to for guidance from an administration known for haphazard and inconsistent policy positions.
“It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armor every day and defend America,” Haley, seated next to Trump in the Oval Office, told reporters. “I’ll never truly step aside from fighting for our country. But I will tell you that I think it’s time.”
“I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job,” she added.
White House staffers were caught off guard by the announcement, which Haley and Trump had kept closely under wraps. But the president said Haley had informed him roughly six months ago that she wanted to take a break after finishing two years with the administration. He said he hoped Haley would return in a different role, and that he would name her successor within the next two or three weeks.
“She’s done a fantastic job and we’ve done a fantastic job together,” Trump said. “We’re all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you.”
Haley is said to have a strained relationship with Bolton, a longtime critic of the United Nations. But she has been closely allied with Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The couple held a dinner in New York months ago celebrating Haley’s tenure there, and during her Tuesday appearance with Trump, she singled them both out for praise.
“Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands,” Haley said. “And Ivanka has been just a great friend, and they do a lot of things behind the scenes that I wish more people knew about, because we’re a bet- ter country because they’re in this administration.”
Haley, the first Cabi- net-level U.N. ambassador for a Republican administration since the end of the Cold War, quickly made clear she saw the position as a step- pingstone to a higher politi- cal office — a possibility that Trump may have resented.
She became a far more visible face of U.S. foreign policy than her first boss at the State Department, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Mike Pompeo, Til- lerson’s replacement, has recently reasserted the sec- retary of state’s traditional role.
Time magazine celebrated Haley’s ascendance by put- ting her on a cover as one of the women who are “chang- ing the world.”
But Haley, who has long been seen as a potential pres- idential candidate, said Tuesday she had no intention of running for president in 2020, as has been speculated. Instead, she said, she plans to campaign for Trump’s re-election.
Stepping away now could be a logical end point if Haley wants to preserve her own political future. But 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 — Nikki Haley’s 2018 financial disclo- sure report shows Haley has at least $1.5 million in debts, including more than $1 mil- lion for her mortgage.
For the moment, few Repub l ican strategists believe that Haley is inclined to challenge Trump in 2020. But those who know her believe that she is likely to run, whether in 2024, or even in 2020 — should the president not run again.
“An open presidential race is a better chance to show off her incredible political skills, rather than some quix- otic primary effort,” said Matt Moore, who was the Republican Party chair in South Carolina when Haley was governor there.
The daughter of immi- grants from India, Haley favored free markets and global trade and earned international attention when she was governor for speaking out against the Confed- erate battle flag in the after- math of the 2015 massacre at a black church in Charleston. During Trump’s presiden- tial campaign, she sharply criticized his demeanor and warned what it might mean for U.S. diplomacy — even suggesting that his tendency to lash out at critics could cause a world war.