US President Donald Trump has accepted Nikki Haley’s resignation as US ambassador to the United Nations, and said she would be “leaving” his administration “at the end of the year”.
In the White House’s Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump called the ambassador a “very special” person “who gets it,” adding that she told him six months ago that she might want to take some time off.
Trump said that together they “solved a lot of problems”.
Haley, 46, said she had no immediate plans, and denied she would be running for president in 2020.
Haley was appointed to the UN post in November 2016.
Before she was named by Trump to her UN post, Haley was governor of South Carolina, the first woman to hold the post. She was re-elected in 2014.
A rookie to international politics, Haley was an unusual pick for to be UN envoy.
As South Carolina governor, she was outspoken in her criticism of Trump during the 2016 campaign – a stance that effectively disqualified other candidates for top administration positions.
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley alluded to Trump in denouncing “the siren call of the angriest voices” who disrespected America’s immigrants.
Trump then tweeted that “The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley”.
