WASHINGTON – The United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has resigned leaving President Donald Trump’s national security circle, White House officials said Tuesday.
“It’s been eight years of intense time, and I’m a believer in term limits. I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and let someone else do the job,” the 46-year-old said.
Her resignation comes ahead of what Trump promised on Twitter on Tuesday was a “Big announcement” with Haley at the White House.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1049665483182694402
The former South Carolina governor had served since January 2017.
The surprise resignation comes a day after a Washington DC watchdog group called for a federal investigation into Haley’s use of private planes owned by South Carolina businessmen.
The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, says Haley undervalued the flights by tens of thousands of dollars on her annual financial disclosure form required of federal officials.
Yesterday, we requested an ethics investigation into Nikki Haley’s private flights. She resigned this morning as UN Ambassador. (These two things are probably unrelated.) https://t.co/4y0jkW8a6w
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 9, 2018
“By accepting gifts of luxury private flights, Ambassador Haley seems to be falling in line with other Trump administration officials who are reaping personal benefits from their public positions,” the group’s executive director, Noah Bookbinder, said in a statement calling for the investigation Monday.
The ethics group says the flights create the impression of impermissible gifts to a public official. However, Haley said on her disclosure the men are all personal friends and, thus, exempt from federal rules about accepting flights on private planes.
The daughter of immigrants from India, Haley will meet with Trump in the Oval Office at 10:30 a.m., according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
