WASHINGTON:
Nikki Haley, nee Nimrata Randhawa, the first-ever American cabinet member of Indian-origin, resigned abruptly on Tuesday from the Trump administration in which she served as the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations.
In a joint appearance with President Trump at the White House, Haley said she was leaving simply because it was time to go and it was important for government officials to know when to step aside. President Trump praised her warmly both on personal and professional fronts, their remarks belying raging speculation in the Washington commentariat that there was something untoward in the development.
Haley also quashed speculation that she would be running for the White House in 2020 and said she would be campaigning for Trump. The President said she could come back any time in a different capacity and have the pick of jobs, so happy was he with her performance at the United Nations. Both said she would serve at her UN post till the end of the year, by which time the President would pick a replacement in two or three weeks, possibly earlier.
“It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armour every day and defend America,” Haley, seated next to Trump in the Oval Office, told reporters. “I’ll never truly step aside from fighting for our country. But I will tell you that I think it’s time.”
Speculation about Haley’s replacement ranged from the President’s daughter
Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner to more far out names such as Dennis Rodman and Kanye West, given Trump’s fascination with glamour and appearance. That fact that Haley pointedly praised Kushner, calling him a “hidden genius that no one understands,” and called Ivanka a “great friend,” heightened the speculation.
In turn, Trump credited Haley with bringing glamour to the U.N. Ambassador’s post while lavishly praising her for doing a “fantastic job.”
“She got to know the players, she got to know China, Russia, and India...they like her…they respect her. We will miss you… you’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump said in warm words that clearly showed there was no animus between them. Haley too praised the President saying the
United States was respected because of him. “Countries may not like what we do but they respect what we do…nations get that the President means business,” she said.
In the hour after word leaked on Tuesday morning that she was leaving, the Washington punditocracy had worked itself into a lather wondering if she was being fired or eased out because she was constantly challenging Trump on issues such as sanctions on Russia (on which she is a hardliner) and wanted to run against him in 2020.
There was also speculation that she may have been the author of the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times excoriating Trump -- despite the fact that she had denied authorship and had written in support of Trump – the guesswork based on the fact that she was once a never-Trumper and had backed his rival Marco Rubio in the Presidential election campaign.
As it turned out, Haley suggested her departure was no more than a case of burnout. She had served as the Governor of South Carolina for six years during a particularly rough time for the state and dived straight into the U.N job that she did for two intense years, and also she said there are no “personal reasons” for her leaving, she indicated it was time for her to attend more to her family, which includes two young children, Rena and Nalin. Trump himself said she had informed about six months ago of her desire to step down and suggested it did not come as a surprise to him.
Born in Bamberg, South Carolina, Nikki Haley, born Nimrata Randhawa, is the daughter of Sikh parents Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, both highly educated academics who immigrated to Canada from Amritsar before eventually moving to South Carolina. After running for the South Carolina legislature in 2004, Haley, who is married to U.S National Guard office, became only the second Indian-American government of a U.S state (after Bobby Jindal) in 2010.
She initially opposed
Donald Trump in the 2016 election cycle (and he trashed her in trademark tweets) before she fell in line after his victory and he picked her to be the U.S Ambassador to the U.N., against the first person of Indian-origin to occupy a post that is part of the 15-member Presidential cabinet.
Although she occasionally appeared out of sync with Trump, particularly in her hardline stance on Russia, she survived his mercurial temperament for nearly two years despite media speculation that he was not impressed with her and her frequent expressions of dissent. "I don’t agree with the president on everything. When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person,” she said when there was speculation she may have been the author of the NYT op-ed that scalded Trump.
In recent days, she had spoken out strongly in favour of Christine Blasey Ford after the university professor made sexual misconduct charges against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, saying, “It turns my stomach. It really turns my stomach. I mean, Ms. Ford needs to be heard, but
Brett Kavanaugh needs to be heard and the Senate has a responsibility here.”