Expensive curtains hang in Haley’s N.Y. home
Obama administration ordered $52,701 set of custom drapes for U.N. ambassador’s residence
WASHINGTON — The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki Haley’s official residence as ambassador to the United Nations, just as the department was undergoing deep budget cuts and had frozen hiring.
The residence on First Avenue in New York has spectacular views, and Haley is the first ambassador to live in it. For decades, her predecessors lived in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. But after the hotel was purchased by a Chinese insurance company with a murky ownership structure, the State Department decided in 2016 to find a new home for its top New York diplomat because of security concerns.
The government leased the apartment, just blocks from the delegation’s offices, with an option to buy, according to Patrick Kennedy, the top management official at the State Department during the Obama administration.
The full-floor penthouse, with handsome hardwood floors covering large open spaces stretching nearly 6,000 square feet, was listed at $58,000 a month.
While ambassadors around the world are given residences, there are only two such residences in the United States — one for Haley and the other for her deputy.
A spokesman for Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.
The curtains themselves cost $29,900, while the motors and hardware needed to open and close them automatically cost $22,801, according to the contracts. Installation took place from March to August of last year, during Haley’s tenure as ambassador.
Kennedy defended the purchase, saying that it would probably be used for years and that it was needed for security purposes. “The ability to open and close the curtains quickly is important,” Kennedy said.