--- title: Nikki Haley Left the Trump Administration on Her Own Terms description: Nikki Haley became one of the only senior staff members to walk away from the White House with her reputation largely intact. canonical: https://time.com/5419623/nikki-haley-resignation-trump/ author: W.J. Hennigan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-09T17:07:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:41:34.463Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Nikki Haley Left the Trump Administration on Her Own Terms og:description: A rarity in the Trump Administration. og:url: https://time.com/5419623/nikki-haley-resignation-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7091ae485fb86bdd/69893c2c096a9449fd6a3a2f/nikki-haley-donald-trump-us-respect.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: Trump Haley, Washington, USA - 09 Oct 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Nikki Haley Left the Trump Administration on Her Own Terms twitter:description: A rarity in the Trump Administration. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7091ae485fb86bdd/69893c2c096a9449fd6a3a2f/nikki-haley-donald-trump-us-respect.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Nikki Haley Left the Trump Administration on Her Own Terms > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Oct 9, 2018 5:07 PM UTC  President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House on Oct. 9, 2018. President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House on Oct. 9, 2018. Evan Vucci—AP/REX  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Oct 9, 2018 5:07 PM UTC It’s not often that a top-level official in this Administration gets away clean and leaves on good terms with President Donald Trump. When she stepped down Tuesday as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley became one of the only senior staff members to walk away from the White House with her reputation largely intact. Since Trump’s first weeks in office, the White House has been plagued with high-profile departures of people who are fired or resign, often after being stung by scandal or caught up in some controversy: National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, FBI Director James Comey and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to name a few. But Haley, who is seen as stabilizing force within the Administration and a frequent spokesperson for the president’s foreign policy on television, left on her own terms with her political credentials preserved. In a decision that stunned Washington and the international diplomatic community, Haley announced she would leave her position by year’s end. The President’s send-off for Haley differed wildly from the typical announcements — often abruptly made from Trump’s personal Twitter account — that marked previous departures. He held a press conference inside the Oval Office and spoke about her in glowing terms, declaring she was “special to me,” and even raised the possibility she may rejoin the Administration later “in a different capacity.” Trump said Haley told him about six months ago that she wanted to take a break from the job. He intends to name Haley’s successor within the next two to three weeks. It will be a tough decision, he said, because Haley had made U.N. ambassador a more “glamorous” position than it had been in previous years. Haley said her tenure at the U.N. was an honor of a lifetime. “It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armor every day and defend America,” she said. “I’ll never truly step aside from fighting for our country. But I will tell you that I think it’s time.” She also lavished praise on Trump’s leadership and foreign policy stances. “Look at what has happened in two years with the United States on foreign policy,” she said. “Now the United States is respected. Countries might not like what we do, but they respect what we do. Now if we say we’re going to do something, we follow through.” She made clear there was no “personal reason” for her impending departure except she thinks government officials should know when it’s time to “step aside” and allow someone else in with a fresh perspective. She quieted rumors by declaring she had no intention to run for president in 2020, and instead promised to campaign for Trump. Over the past two years, Haley became a critical voice for the White House’s hardline approach against U.S. adversaries such as Iran and North Korea. But she did not shy away from her policy disagreements with Trump or other senior officials. “I don’t agree with the president on everything,” she wrote Sept. 7 [in a Washington _Post_ op-ed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/when-i-challenge-the-president-i-do-it-directly-my-anonymous-colleague-should-have-too/2018/09/07/d453eaf6-b2ae-11e8-9a6a-565d92a3585d%5Fstory.html?noredirect=on&utm%5Fterm=.8bdfb34822ef). “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.” It became Haley’s defining characteristic. When a National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow suggested in April that Haley had suffered “momentary confusion” over the Trump Administration’s approach to sanctions against Russian entities who were assisting Syria’s chemical weapons program, she responded with a clear message to the contrary. “[With all due respect, I don’t get confused](http://time.com/5245537/nikki-haley-i-dont-get-confused-larry-kudlow-spat/),” Haley [said in a written statement](http://time.com/5244169/nikki-haley-larry-kudlow-russian-sanctions/). The retort quickly earned her an [apology](http://time.com/5244371/nikki-haley-russia-sanctions-confused/). Trump ventured outside of his core group of supporters when he announced his intent to nominate Haley, then-South Carolina governor, to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Haley was an early and vocal critic of the President-elect during the long GOP primary, endorsing Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. She reluctantly announced her intention to vote for Trump just weeks before Election Day. Haley, 46, remains a rising Republican star who now has traditional foreign policy bona fides to add to her experience as a two-term governor. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she was the first woman and person of minority background to be announced for Trump’s Administration. 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