Nikki Haley: US ambassador to UN resigns

What did Haley say about her abrupt move?

Mrs Haley did not give details about her move – or what she would do next.

“It’s been eight years of intense time, and I’m a believer in term limits,” she said referring to her time in public office.

“I don’t have anything set on where I’m going to go,” she said.

Mrs Haley told journalists she would be campaigning for “this one”, pointing to Mr Trump.

Mr Trump said Mrs Haley had told him some time ago she wanted to take some time off.

The president said she “has been very special to me, she has done an incredible job, she is a fantastic person, very importantly, but she is also somebody that gets it”.

“Hopefully you’ll be coming back at some point, right,” Mr Trump said. “Maybe a different capacity, you can have your pick.” Mrs Haley laughed.

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Analysis by Nick Bryant, BBC UN correspondent

Through the revolving door of the Trump administration goes another high-level departure: UN ambassador Nikki Haley, by far the most high-profile woman in the cabinet, and an internationalist who’s done much to protect the United Nations from Donald Trump’s anti-globalist wrecking ball.

She was a strident critic of Russia and Syria at the UN, and also fiercely critical of what she claimed was the global body’s anti-Israel’s bias. She supported shutting off US funding for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency and revelled in defending the Trump administration’s decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the face of an acid show of international criticism. She was also instrumental in pressuring China to support a tough sanctions regime against North Korea.

Sometimes, however, her style grated with colleagues. Her aggressive and repeated warnings about compiling a list of countries that didn’t back the United States irritated even close allies. Yet it’s often said that the UN’s biggest peacekeeping mission is directed against the Trump White House, and Nikki Haley was seen as a valuable ally.

A former governor of South Carolina, she’s a talented politician who’s widely spoken of as a future female US president. Though she has ruled out challenging Donald Trump in 2020, we have not heard the last of Nikki Haley.

BBC