Nikki Haley Resigns As UN Ambassador, To Leave At End Of The Year
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBSNEWS.COM/AP) - U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is leaving the administration at the end of the year, she and President Donald Trump announced Tuesday. She gave no reason for her departure after two years, though there has been speculation she will return to government or politics at some point.
"No, I'm not running in 2020" for president, she joked. She said she would be supporting Trump.
President Trump accepted her resignation, but then tweeted that a "big announcement" was coming.
Haley said she and Trump together had "solved a lot of problems. They spoke in the Oval Office, shortly after word came of her plans to resign.
Trump called Haley a "very special" person, adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off.
It's the latest shake-up in the turbulent Trump administration just weeks before the November midterm elections. Haley's resignation was a closely guarded secret. Congressional Republicans involved in foreign policy matters and some key U.S. allies did not get advance word from Haley or the White House.
Haley, who is speculated to hold aspirations for higher office, said at the White House: "No I'm not running in 2020."
Haley, 46, was appointed to the U.N. post in November 2016 and last month coordinated Trump's second trip to the United Nations, including his first time chairing the Security Council.
A rookie to international politics, the former South Carolina governor was an unusual pick for to be U.N. envoy.
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