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Aaron Blake
Senior political reporter, writing for The Fix
This publication has been updated.
Nikki Haley resigns as US ambassador to the United Nations. And the timing raises the eyebrows.
President Trump and Haley quickly held a media meeting Tuesday morning at the White House soon after Jonathan Swan of Axios announced the new of its imminent exit. Haley explained that his resignation was simply to take a break after six years as head of the South Carolina government and two others at the United Nations. Trump said Haley had even announced his willingness to leave six months ago.
Both were obviously eager to downplay the idea that it was hasty. But if it were not, the timing would be even stranger.
If it had been planned for a long time, it was apparently one of the best kept secrets of the White House, which had a lot of leaks. The news would have blindly masked foreign policy makers, the White House and even Haley's staff.
The release of Haley is scheduled for the end of the year, which means it will stay around until 12 weeks. But she and the White House have chosen to announce it four weeks before the 2018 elections? The White House is indeed announcing the resignation of its most popular representative of the government – the very rare one which was strongly approved by the Republicans and the democrats – just before the vote of the voters. Aside from Defense Secretary James Mattis, no one is seen as such a stable influence in an administration as heavy as Haley's.
The latest news also comes as Trump and the Republicans seem to be at the forefront of the consequences of Brett M. Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation. Republican enthusiasm has increased, and a poll released last Monday even suggested that independents viewed Kavanaugh's democrats' actions more weakly than Republicans. The GOP had a clear interest in focusing on Kavanaugh, yet the White House inserted it the day after Kavanaugh's solemn inauguration.
Haley's is also the first major release of the administration since this anonymous op-op of the New York Times in which a "senior administration official," still unknown, explained how officials were trying to control the impulses of Trump and even to undermine it in certain ways. Haley's name quickly rose to the top in terms of the potential writers of the podium – given its well-established independence within the administration – but it may have published the author's strongest criticism .
The timing is also strange considering a title that was published just a day before the announcement. Citizens for Accountability and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a Washington-based surveillance group, called for an investigation into its use of private travel at government expense. We do not know if there is anything wrong, but resigning so soon after such a dramatic fall does not seem to be optimal – especially since similar allegations of ethics have swept away Cabinet officials than Tom Price and Scott Pruitt.
Update: Haley's letter of resignation is dated October 3rdwhich would put it before the above allegations became public. The White House has not always been totally accurate with his datesIt should be noted, but this date coincides with when Haley met Trump himself. It was also a day after Trump mocks Christine Blasey Ford at a rallyalthough there is no indication that this has anything to do with Haley's departure.
Representative Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) Discussed this story and other ideas with MSNBC shortly after Haley's resignation. Sanford, a former South Carolina governor who had previously been allied with Haley but is now critical of the administration, said of the story, "Something is wrong. Something is weird. "
Sanford's speculation may well be that Sanford is Sanford – he is one of the country's most unique politicians – but it's not unreasonable to wonder what's going on. So many things are unknown. The only reason we can exclude this moment is that it is by 2020. Haley, in her availability with Trump, said that she would not run against him and that she would rather campaign for him . She also congratulated Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, calling the latter a "hidden genius".
But if there was a simple and valid reason for this departure to be announced now, we do not know it yet.
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