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Nikki Haley to Resign as Trump’s Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley to Resign as Trump’s Ambassador to the U.N.
(about 2 hours later)
President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, said on 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.President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, said on 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.
Ms. Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, had been an early and frequent critic of Mr. Trump, so when he named her the envoy to the world body weeks after his election in November 2016, the appointment was seen as an olive branch. Ms. Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, had been an early and frequent critic of Mr. Trump; when he named her to the United Nations job weeks after his election in November 2016, the appointment was seen as an olive branch. As ambassador, Ms. 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,” Ms. Haley, seated next to Mr. 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.”“It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armor every day and defend America,” Ms. Haley, seated next to Mr. 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.”
Being the United Nations ambassador, she said, “has been an honor of a lifetime.” “I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job,” she added.
Mr. Trump said Ms. 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 Ms. Haley would return in a different role, and would name her successor within the next two or three weeks. White House staffers were caught off guard by the announcement, which Ms. Haley and Mr. Trump had kept closely under wraps. But the president said Ms. 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 Ms. Haley would return in a different role, and 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,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you.”“She’s done a fantastic job and we’ve done a fantastic job together,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you.”
Ms. Haley, who has long been seen as a potential presidential candidate, said she had no intention of running for the presidency in 2020, as has been speculated. Instead, she said, she plans to campaign for Mr. Trump’s re-election. Possible successors include Dina Powell, a former deputy national security adviser to the president, and Richard A. Grenell. Mr. Grenell, the American ambassador to Germany, served as spokesman for John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, when he was ambassador to the United Nation under former President George W. Bush.
“I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job,” Ms. Haley said. Ms. Haley is said to have a strained relationship with Mr. Bolton, a longtime critic of the United Nations. But she has been closely allied with Mr. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The couple held a dinner in New York months ago celebrating Ms. Haley’s tenure there, and during her Tuesday appearance with Mr. Trump, she singled them both out for praise.
The daughter of immigrants from India, Ms. Haley favored free markets and global trade and earned international attention for speaking out against the Confederate battle flag in the aftermath of the 2015 massacre at a black church in Charleston. During Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, she sharply criticized his demeanor and warned what it might mean for American diplomacy — even suggesting that his tendency to lash out at critics could cause a world war. “Jared is such a hidden genius that no one understands,” Ms. 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 better country because they’re in this administration.”
As ambassador, Ms. Haley was an outspoken and often forceful envoy — someone whom foreign diplomats looked to for guidance from an administration known for haphazard and inconsistent policy positions. She was quick to voice her own opinions on the big policy issues that are high on her agenda, like Iran and North Korea. Ms. Haley, the first cabinet-level United Nations ambassador 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 Mr. Trump may have resented.
Ms. Haley acknowledged her policy disagreements with the president in an op-ed in the Washington Post last month when she criticized an anonymous senior administration official who penned an opinion piece in The New York Times, describing a chaotic administration in which many of the president’s aides disagreed with their boss. She became a far more visible face of American foreign policy than her first boss at the State Department, former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson. Mike Pompeo, Mr. Tillerson’s replacement, has recently reasserted the secretary of state’s traditional role.
Time magazine celebrated Ms. Haley’s ascendance by putting her on a cover as one of the women who are “changing the world.”
But Ms. Haley, who has long been seen as a potential presidential candidate, said on Tuesday she had no intention of running for president in 2020, as has been speculated. Instead, she said, she plans to campaign for Mr. Trump’s re-election.
Ms. Haley’s advisers have long tended to her political image, and stepping away now could be a logical end point if she 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 — her 2018 financial disclosure report shows Ms. Haley has at least $1.5 million in debts, including more than $1 million for her mortgage.
For the moment, few Republican strategists believe that Ms. Haley is inclined to challenge Mr. 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 quixotic primary effort,” said Matt Moore, who was the Republican Party chair in South Carolina when Ms. Haley was governor there.
The daughter of immigrants from India, Ms. Haley favored free markets and global trade and earned international attention when she was governor for speaking out against the Confederate battle flag in the aftermath of the 2015 massacre at a black church in Charleston. During Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, she sharply criticized his demeanor and warned what it might mean for American diplomacy — even suggesting that his tendency to lash out at critics could cause a world war.
As ambassador, Ms. Haley acknowledged her policy disagreements with the president in an op-ed in the Washington Post last month when she criticized an anonymous senior administration official who penned an opinion piece in The New York Times, describing a chaotic administration in which many of the president’s aides disagreed with their boss.
“I don’t agree with the president on everything,” Ms. Haley wrote. “When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person.”“I don’t agree with the president on everything,” Ms. Haley wrote. “When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person.”
Ms. Haley also collided with the national security adviser, John R. Bolton, after she announced that Mr. Trump would lead a session of the United Nations Security Council devoted entirely to Iran. After European officials protested that this would showcase divisions in the West because of Mr. Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, the White House broadened the theme to countering weapons of mass destruction. Those disagreements began during the 2016 campaign and continued after she joined his administration.
Mr. Bolton did not criticize Ms. Haley. But as a former ambassador to the United Nations, he drove the decision to shift the agenda. White House officials noted that under United Nations rules, Iran would have been entitled to send its president to the meeting — setting up the awkward possibility that Mr. Trump would have sat across a table from Iran’s leader. Last December, Ms. Haley said that women who had accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct “should be heard, and they should be dealt with.” It was a surprising break from the administration’s longstanding assertion that the accusations were false, and that voters rightly dismissed them when they elected Mr. Trump.
Ms. Haley also has cast herself as someone able to sway her mercurial boss on issues like Russia sanctions, refugee resettlement and the value of the United Nations itself. “I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up,” Ms. Haley told CBS.
She was the first cabinet-level United Nations ambassador for a Republican administration since the end of the Cold War, and quickly made clear she saw the position as a steppingstone to a higher political office — a possibility that Mr. Trump may have resented. In April, Ms. Haley announced that the administration would impose sanctions against Russian companies found to be assisting Syria’s chemical weapons program. It was part of a menu of options to retaliate against a suspected gas attack that killed dozens on April 7. But the next day, the White House announced that Mr. Trump had decided not to go forward with the sanctions, contradicting what Ms. Haley had said.
She became a far more visible face of American foreign policy than her first boss at the State Department, former Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson. Time magazine celebrated Ms. Haley’s ascendance by putting her on a cover as one of the women who are “changing the world.” The White House said she had gotten “ahead of the curve” and one official blamed Ms. Haley’s statement as “momentary confusion.” Ms. Haley testily responded that she did not “get confused.”
A March 9 article in Foreign Policy magazine, titled “Candidate Haley,” portrayed her as a “retail politician turning U.N. diplomacy into a ticket to the White House.” Ms. Haley collided with Mr. Bolton last month after she announced that Mr. Trump would lead a session of the United Nations Security Council devoted entirely to Iran. After European officials protested that doing so would showcase divisions in the West because of Mr. Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, the White House broadened the theme to countering weapons of mass destruction.
“Nikki Haley has been a clear, consistent, and powerful voice for America’s interests and democratic principles on the world stage,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said on Twitter. “She challenged friend and foe to be better.” Mr. Bolton did not criticize Ms. Haley. But he drove the decision to shift the agenda. White House officials noted that under United Nations rules, Iran would have been entitled to send its president to the meeting — setting up the awkward possibility that Mr. Trump would have sat across a table from Iran’s leader.
Earlier this year, Republicans close to the White House whispered about the possibility that Ms. Haley and Vice President Mike Pence run as a ticket together as early as 2020. However, Mr. Trump plans to run for re-election. Ms. Haley has also been criticized by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal nonprofit watchdog group in Washington. On Monday, the group sent a letter to Steve A. Linick, the State Department’s inspector general, asking for an investigation into whether Ms. Haley had violated executive branch regulations on accepting gifts.
While Ms. Haley was among the few women in Mr. Trump’s cabinet, she is far from the first United States woman to hold the United Nations ambassador position. She succeeded Samantha Power and Susan E. Rice, who both worked for former President Barack Obama. The letter said Ms. Haley and her husband accepted seven free flights on luxury private aircraft from three South Carolina businessmen in 2017, at an estimated worth tens of thousands of dollars. The flights were listed on Ms. Haley’s financial disclosure report, which was filed in May.
Other women envoys from the United States to the world body have included Madeleine Albright, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Anne Patterson, Rosemary DiCarlo and Michele Sison. Federal ethics regulations prohibit employees from accepting gifts that are given because of their official position. The watchdog group noted that Ms. Haley had previously argued that each flight qualified for an exception to the rules because she had a personal relationship with the donors.
In a January 2016 response to Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address, she warned against following “the siren call of the angriest voices,” a clear rebuke of Mr. Trump.
And in December 2017, Ms. Haley said that women who had accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct “should be heard,” a surprising break from the administration’s longstanding assertion that the accusations were false and that voters rightly dismissed them when they elected Mr. Trump.
“They should be heard, and they should be dealt with,” Ms. Haley told CBS. “And I think we heard from them prior to the election. And I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up.”
In August 2017, when Mr. Trump casually said at a televised news briefing that his administration could not rule out a “military option” to respond to the crisis in Venezuela, Ms. Haley was visibly dismayed.
On April 15, Ms. Haley announced that the administration would place sanctions on Russian companies found to be assisting Syria’s chemical weapons program — part of a menu of options to retaliate against a suspected gas attack that killed dozens on April 7.
But the next day, the White House announced that Mr. Trump had decided not to go forward with the sanctions, contradicting what Ms. Haley had said. The White House said she had gotten “ahead of the curve” and one official blamed Ms. Haley’s statement as “momentary confusion.” Ms. Haley testily responded that she did not “get confused.”
Compounding her political difficulties, that same weekend, the White House blocked a plan under which one of her advisers, Jon Lerner, would also advise Mr. Pence on national security policy, in a dual role.
The White House was angered by Mr. Lerner’s role in a “super PAC” that had supported one of Mr. Trump’s primary campaign opponents, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and by his involvement in the anti-tax Club for Growth, which had attacked Mr. Trump during his campaign for the Republican nomination for president.