Nikki Haley is a GOP rising star, but some don’t like her stealing Trump’s spotlight
WASHINGTON – Almost as soon as The New York Times published an explosive piece from an anonymous senior administration official describing how some top Trump aides work to prevent the president from making reckless decisions, Cabinet secretaries quickly began releasing statements denying they were the author.
But only one of them, Nikki Haley, ambassador to the United Nations, wrote her own op-ed in response – a piece that angered some in the White House who thought it was designed to draw attention to herself, according to two outside advisers who are close to the White House.
All presidents want the spotlight to themselves, but perhaps none more so than the current one.
“There’s only one star in this show and it’s Donald J. Trump,” said one of the two people, a former Trump adviser who remains close to the White House.
Since the start of the administration, White House aides have grumbled that Haley, a rising star in the Republican Party who is widely considered to be eying a run for president, has repeatedly either gotten in front of Trump or taken the spotlight away from him.
“That’s always been the friction between her and the White House,” said a former White House official. “It has been that way since day one.”
Last year, when Trump took his ambitious maiden foreign trip, Haley set out on her own trip to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey. Haley’s office said the administration was aware of her plans and encouraged the trip.
In the spring, Haley got ahead of Trump when she announced on Sunday talk shows that the U.S. would impose new sanctions on Russian companies aiding Syria. The White House wasn’t ready for that to be announced. And when National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters that Haley was “confused,” and that sanctions weren’t coming, she publicly shot back: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”
Kudlow later apologized, although Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin praised Haley as a “terrific spokesperson” and warned people not to read too much into the situation.
And Haley has touted the need for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump associates colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election despite Trump repeatedly calling it a “witch hunt” run by a group of “angry Democrats.”
“Staff would joke about her being a potential 2020 primary opponent because she so often got ahead of the president or went another direction on an issue,” the former White House official said. “It was frustrating even if she was right on the merits.”
A Haley spokesperson said the president and ambassador work well together and that the White House communications office knew about her op-ed before it was published, as is the normal practice.