Trump names South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as new UN ambassador
In a move nobody would have seen coming before Election Day, President-Elect Donald Trump has named South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as his administration’s ambassador to the United Nations. She is the first woman named to a cabinet-level position in the Trump administration. A few hours later, Trump named Betsy Devos as his Secretary of Education.
Haley’s appointment is surprising for a couple of reasons. For one, she endorsed not just one, but two of Trump’s primary opponents, Marco Rubio and then Ted Cruz. She publicly criticized Trump and didn’t come around to supporting the President-Elect until the general election.
Secondly, she brings very little foreign policy experience to the job. The statement from the Trump transition team hailed her as a “a proven dealmaker” and she has led trade missions to several countries, including Germany and Sweden. But unlike most of her predecessors, she’s never worked at the State Department or the White House. The current office-holder, Samantha Power, served on the National Security Council before moving to the UN in 2013.
Haley and Trump met soon after his surprise election victory on November 8th, and her name quickly came up as a potential pick for Secretary of State or UN ambassador.
On Wednesday morning, Haley released a statement saying she’d agreed to take the job as UN ambassador, adding “our country faces enormous challenges here at home and internationally.”
The response from some senior UN diplomats, such as United Kingdom’s Matthew Rycroft, has been cautious optimism. There is relief that Trump didn’t pick someone from his inner circle who reflects all of his most extreme positions. Last year, Haley slammed one of Trump’s most controversial proposals, a Muslim travel ban, as “un-American.”
The Trump administration, like most Republican administrations, is expected to have an adversarial relationship with the UN. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said he wanted to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement and stop admitting Syrian refugees. However, Trump has stressed that he wants to “get along” with Russia, which raises the question of how many “showdowns” we’ll see between Haley and Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin at the Security Council.
One senior UN official told Foreign Policy there was a “sense of relief” when Haley was announced, but he admitted it was due to “what we do know about some of the other candidates.”
Therein lies Haley’s long term problem. She’s being welcomed because the UN feared the return of John Bolton, the pugnacious diplomat who served as UN ambassador under George W. Bush, and who didn’t care much for the organization. But at some point being seen as the moderate pick won’t be enough for Haley.
The UN is facing grave problems, like the worst refugee crisis since World War II, a Syria in disarray and a North Korea on the path to nuclear weapons.
Republicans, on the other hand, seem thrilled with the choice. Before Trump blew up the field, Haley was seen as a natural candidate for Vice-President alongside Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. Rubio was quick to congratulate the governor.
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, is perhaps best remembered for publicly stating that the Confederate flag should be removed from the state capitol last year, after nine black church members were killed in a racially motivated shooting in Charleston.
Haley would need Senate confirmation, which shouldn’t be a problem considering that the Republicans are in the majority.
