TRUMP TO SPEAK AFTER 10:30 A.M. EDT
by Sharon Rondeau
(Oct. 9, 2018) — On Tuesday major news outlets confirmed that President Trump has accepted the resignation of United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Haley had been powerful in expressing the United States’ defense of Israel and imposing harsh sanctions on Iran, key components of Trump’s foreign policy.
Trump will be speaking on Tuesday morning about the development.
According to State Department official Rick Edson, Haley’s decision is a “shock.” Edson speculated that Haley might be seeking to run for political office.
The former South Carolina governor is the daughter of East Indian immigrants and joined her parents’ merchandising business prior to entering politics.
According to Trump’s remarks relayed by a pool reporter and read by Sandra Smith of Fox News, Haley will remain at her post until “the end of the year.” Trump apparently was aware that Haley planned to resign this year.
At 11:02 a.m., a White House video became available in which Trump and Haley sat together, with Trump announcing her resignation and saying “she’s done a fantastic job” as UN Ambassador.
“Hopefully you’ll be coming back at some point,” Trump told Haley, to which she laughed but did not confirm or deny.
Haley offered her own remarks in which she cited what she sees as the accomplishments of the Trump administration, including cutting the UN budget, withdrawing from the previous administration’s “Iran deal,” moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and working toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
“The U.S. is strong again,” Haley said, then praised Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Kushner’s wife and Trump’s daughter.
Haley thanked her husband Michael and two children for supporting her as ambassador. “It’s a great day in the United States,” she said. “I don’t have anything set as far as where I’m going to go…It’s been the honor of a lifetime.”
“I’ll never truly step aside from fighting for our country,” she said in response to a reporter’s question as to whether or not she is resigning “for personal reasons.” She indicated that after eight years of intense public service — six as governor of South Carolina and two as UN ambassador — another high-energy individual should assume her post.