U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley reportedly announced her departure on Tuesday — even though she’s leaving at the end of the year — because she wanted to avoid appearing as though she were leaving the Trump administration in response to potential negative outcomes of the midterm elections or any other negative news, Politico reported.
According to two people familiar with the matter, Haley also was trying to avoid the appearance that the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe had anything to do with her departure.
While Haley’s official story is that her exit is fueled by her passion for term limits, her allies say Haley felt she couldn’t move up any further in the Trump administration and she decided to “bow out,” in Politico’s words. Haley attempted to put any speculation about her political future to rest by saying she had no ambitions to run for president in 2020, but many anti-Trump Republicans are still hoping she’ll emerge as a primary challenger to the President.
According to a White House official who spoke to Politico, Haley’s political ambitions have always “irritated” Trump.
Imagine that, a woman leaving the Trump administration because she can’t advance her career there, and Trump being irritated at a woman’s political ambitions.
Hard to believe, right? I mean, it’s almost like Haley can discern the obvious.
Riiiiiiiiiiiight! I’m going to stick with “The wolves are at the door so now I have to cash in on K-Street” theory…
Her letter is dated the day after Trump attacked Dr. Ford from the podium. Her official announcement is the day after Kavanaugh was sworn in. Her decision to quit is about 1 week after the UNGA laughed at Trump and after polls show how poorly regarded the US is in the world. There were lots of reasons for her to quit, but I think the main ones are: 1. she sucked at her job, 2. there’s no fixing or cleaning up after Trump, 3. she’s attempting to buy time to rehab herself (though her fawning praise will be a negative in future campaigns), and 4. she had a reaction to the Dr. Ford allegations which suggests that #metoo means something to her. She’s also reportedly $1 mill in debt, but that wouldn’t determine the pre-mid-term timing of the departure.
I know a lot of people think she’ll be a strong GOP candidate in 2024 or in 2020 (if Trump is forced to resign or is so weakened by Mueller and a worsening economy that he draws challengers), but I view her as quite damaged politically.
Her letter is dated one day after Khashoggi disappeared. She may well have known about the intercepted intelligence, and wanted to get out of the way immediately, suspecting the worst.
Then why did she praise Kushner? Kushner is responsible for giving MBS the sense of license to do something this brazen.