On October 9, 2018, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (full name Nimrata Haley) announced that President Donald Trump had accepted her resignation effective the end of this year. In the wake of this news, President Trump lauded Haley, “She’s done a fantastic job and we’ve done a fantastic job together. We’ve solved a lot of problems and we’re in the process of solving a lot of problems.” Quite controversially, this resignation came a day after a watchdog organization accused Haley of ethics violations for taking several luxury flights from a South Carolina businessman. Ambassador Haley played a critical role in the Trump administration and has had a storied political career. In 2004, she ran for and won a seat on the South Carolina House of Representatives as a Republican, serving for five years.
In 2009, Haley announced her intentions to run for the Governorship of South Carolina. In 2010, she won, becoming the first ever female and Indian-American Governor of South Carolina. She announced that she would reject any bill passed by the South Carolina state legislation to force transgender people to use the bathroom of their biological sex. Haley was quoted as saying, “Y’all haven’t reported on anything. I haven’t heard anything that’s come to my office. So when I look at South Carolina, we look at our situations, we’re not hearing of anybody’s religious liberties that are being violated, and we’re, again, not hearing any citizens that feel like they are being violated in terms of freedoms.” After the deadly Charleston shootings in 2015, Haley also approved a bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina Capitol Building.
On November 24, 2016, then President-elect Donald Trump nominated Haley to become his Ambassador to the United Nations, replacing President Obama appointee Samantha Power. On January 27, 2017, she was officially sworn in as ambassador. During her two-year-long tenure, Haley repeatedly went to bat for Israel, voicing her opposition to previous Obama-era Security Council resolution that called for an immediate end to Israeli settlements in Palestine. She also used the Security Council vote of the United States to block the appointment of UN ambassadors who were notably unfriendly to Israel. In her statement, she said, “For too long the UN has been unfairly biased in favor of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel.”
She also attracted notoriety for her strong hand in the treatment of Iran and North Korea. She supported President Trump’s decision to let the Iran Nuclear Deal expire, and she supported the heavy economic sanctions placed upon North Korea by the Trump administration. In arguably her most famous act, Ambassador Haley pulled the U.S. out of the UN Human Rights Council, once again citing UN bias against Israel.
Haley has stated publicly that she doesn’t know what she will be doing after she resigns from her position. However, she stated to the press that she won’t be making a presidential run in 2020 opposing Donald Trump, presumably to put a stop to any rumors before they begin. President Trump has said that he will pick a new ambassador within the next two to three weeks. Ambassador Haley will be staying on in her current position until the end of 2018.
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