Nikki Haley is resigning from her UN post
Nikkii Haley was one of the best UN ambassadors ever, so I’m sorry to see that she’s leaving the post. That said, her job was a largely thankless task in terms of any change being effected in that body. The UN is the UN, and although she was a strong voice for the US there, her skills might be better used elsewhere.
In her announcement, Haley cited the following:
She preemptively sought to mute speculation she might run against her old boss, stressing that she will support Trump and will not campaign for the White House in 2020.
Haley called her time at the U.N. a “blessing,” but offered no reason for leaving other than a belief that government officials must know “when it’s time to step aside.”
Trump told reporters that Haley did “an incredible job” and is a “fantastic person.” He said she had told him six months ago that she wanted to take a break “maybe at the end of the year.”
“Hopefully you’ll be coming back at some point, maybe in another capacity,” he told her. “You can have your pick.”
Haley called her time at Turtle Bay the “honor of a lifetime” and said there was “nothing set on where I am going to go.” She also praised the work of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, particularly Kushner’s role in re-negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). She called Kushner a “hidden genius.”
That doesn’t sound to me like any sort of rift between Haley and Trump. Of course, looks can be deceiving. But that kind of praise between the sides is more than strictly necessary, and seems fairly convincing.
Others will spin it as they wish, of course, as described by Jim Geraghty:
Her departure set off a lot of breathless, and fairly inane, speculation, including claims that Haley was upset with the administration’s defense of Kavanaugh (when has Haley ever not spoken her mind?) or that there’s some sort of terrible scandal about to be revealed (how would Haley know about, say, the Robert Mueller investigation?). Occam’s Razor would suggest that the stated reasons are the true ones — that she has two college-age kids, the job is exhausting, and she’s accomplished a lot of what she set out to do…
Haley has explicitly stated that she plans to support Trump in 2020, so unless she wants to be called a liar, those who fervently hope she’ll primary Trump in that election are barking up the wrong tree. There’s also a widespread meme that the Trump administration was blindsided by her resignation, despite the fact that he says he’s known about it for 6 months.
I have no idea which of those is the truth, surprise or 6-month lead time; maybe neither. Maybe it’s actually something in-between the two.
It will be interesting to see whether there’s a next political step for Haley. My guess is that there will be, but she will be at the job until the end of the year so it may take a while to find out.
I saw speculation that she would replace Lindsey Graham after he becomes the next AG. Baseless, of course. But, intriguing. In point of fact, I really don’t know why anyone who has wielded executive power as a governor would want to go to the Senate. But, many have.
Oldflyer: you must read the same stuff I do!
Maybe Ms Haley knows that the US is pulling out of the United Nations!?
She never should have had that affair with Stormy Daniels.
I certainly hope Oldflyer’s speculation is right about Graham!
Maybe she will replace Mike Pence on the 2020 ticket.
Molly G:
That possibility occurred to me, as well. But it would require some change of heart on Pence’s part. I think it would be great, though, not that I especially dislike Pence.
It would not surprise me if she had decided some months back to leave at the end of the year, and then postponed the announcement due to the anti-Kavanaugh hatefest.
The story at FoxNews.com said she told Trump a few months back she’d like to resign around the two year mark so it seems he knew it was coming.
I hope she remains in politics in some way.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan did a fine job at certain aspects of that job. He resigned after 7 months. Jeane Kirkpatrick stuck it out for four years but made it clear to the Reagan people as early as 1983 if not earlier that she wanted a transfer to the National Security Council (a job she was never given).
“She [Nikki Haley] called Kushner a ‘hidden genius.’ ”
This is a little off-topic, but I’ve wondered a couple times here that Trump is maybe, just maybe, some kind of wizard of “strategery.”
It’s believable that he’s great at managing the media, and even that he’s great political communicator, but he just doesn’t have the demeanor of a genius. But Jared Kushner does.
Kings had consuls, mafia dons had their consiglieres, George W. had Karl Rove, and Obama had Valerie Jarrett. So is Kushner the wizard?
________
When Trump won the election, other than himself, he credited Jared Kushner as the key to the win.
When Trump finalized a trade deal with Mexico rather quickly, we learned about the much tougher negotiations with Canada. Experts said it could be a year or two before a deal is made. While not a perfect win, it was done in about a month.
Trump held a media event about 10 days ago to celebrate the Canadian deal where he congratulated Robert Lighthizer for his success. I didn’t know that a serious player like Lighthizer was on Trump’s team. Then Lighthizer takes the mic. and said the deal couldn’t have been accomplished so well if it wasn’t for Jared Kushner.
Now Nikki Haley is saying it too.
Supposedly, this is all just a warmup for Jared Kushner fixing the Palestine/Israel conflict. Well, good luck with that.
Maybe it’s all just a massive suck up to Trump and Ivanka. But I don’t think Lighthizer would even care about that, and the trade deal was his wheel-house.
Nikki Haley is a loss, but I’m not surprised that two years was all she could stand of that sink of corruption and hatred. She is one of my favorites for a potential nominee in 2024.
As for all the praise for Kushner, maybe Trump is setting him up for 2024; America’s first Jewish president. Where the Israel/Arab war is concerned, as TommyJay says, good luck with that. That is liable to blot Kushner’s copybook. King Arthur will find the Holy Grail sooner than that war will be settled, because the Arabs don’t want a state, they just want to kill Jews until there are none left. No room for compromise there.
CBI on October 9, 2018 at 3:06 pm at 3:06 pm said:
It would not surprise me if she had decided some months back to leave at the end of the year, and then postponed the announcement due to the anti-Kavanaugh hatefest.
* * *
Sounds good to me. The timing of an announcement is not the same as the making of a decision.
Geraghty, I think, is right that she wants to announce it now in the “eye of the storm” before the Dem hurricane picks up again, and then be clear of any speculation about “jumping ship” if the GOP goes down in the midterms.