New York: Nikki Haley joked about President Donald Trump’s UN speech last month. Once, she said, he asked if she belonged to the same Native American tribe as Senator Elizabeth Warren. And as a member of Trump’s cabinet, she added, “It is a thrill to be out to dinner without being harassed.”
For about 17 minutes in the New York Hilton ballroom, Haley, Trump’s soon-to-be-leaving ambassador to the UN, tried her hand at one-liners before a crowd of 700 guests at the annual Al Smith charity dinner. It was a sort of let-loose opportunity for Haley, 46, a Republican star who is widely thought to have presidential ambitions - although she has dismissed the idea of running against Trump, with whom she appears to have a good relationship. Still, it remains unclear precisely why Haley is leaving her UN post after less than two years, and her monologue did nothing to provide answers.
But she joked about it. Having breakfast with host Cardinal Timothy Dolan a few weeks ago to prepare for her speech, she told the crowd, “I asked, ‘Was there anything I could do to really boost attendance?’ And he said, ‘Why don’t you resign as UN ambassador?'” Haley said the president also called her with some advice. “Just brag about my accomplishments,” she quoted him as recommending. “It really killed at the UN, I’ve got to tell you.”
Haley is the daughter of immigrants from India, who became South Carolina’s first female governor and first minority governor. She had a little fun with that, too. When the president first learned of her Indian heritage, she said, “He asked me if I was from the same tribe as Elizabeth Warren,” the Democratic senator from Massachusetts who may challenge Trump in 2020. He has ridiculed Warren’s claims of Native American ancestry.
Haley was introduced as guest speaker by the dinner’s master of ceremonies, comedian Jim Gaffigan, who said, “It’s amazing how Nikki Haley has exited this administration with such dignity.” The keynote address by Haley was the first high-profile New York appearance she has made outside the United Nations since she announced little more than a week ago that she was resigning the ambassador’s post at year’s end.
