Haley More Than Closes Her Distance From TrumpDuring her two years serving in the Trump administration, Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, managed to toe a tougher line on Russia than her boss while also never straying from his good graces.
“We don’t trust Russia. We don’t trust Putin,†Haley said in an interview in July 2018, days after President Donald Trump met with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki. “They’re never going to be our friend.â€
By the time Haley left the administration nearly a year ago, she seemed to have perfected an almost impossible dance: distancing herself from some of the president’s most criticized positions while staying publicly loyal. She managed to leave on her terms and on good terms with the president.
It was a balancing act that did not go without notice, and Haley, a woman of color and a former governor of South Carolina, was widely seen as preserving her options for a return to politics, perhaps as a post-Trump presidential candidate.
Last summer, she challenged the president once more after he had trumpeted the fact that the Baltimore home of Rep. Elijah Cummings, a critic of Trump, had been broken into.
“This is so unnecessary,†Haley wrote on Twitter in August, infuriating the president, according to aides.
But now, Haley appears to have made the political calculation to go all in supporting the president, rather than defining herself in contrast to him.
In a media blitz timed to the release of her new book, “With All Due Respect: Defending America With Grit and Grace,†Haley has consistently echoed White House talking points about how there is no case for impeachment and unequivocally defended Trump’s character.
“In every instance I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with,†Haley told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie..........
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