The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Inside the breakup of Haley and Trump’s partnership over her U.N. role

Nikki Haley began her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations with diplomatic successes. Although she veered right on some issues to satisfy Trump, he attacks her as a ‘globalist’ in their primary fight.

January 19, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced her plan to resign at the end of the year as she sat next to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Oct. 9, 2018. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post)
24 min

As President Donald Trump listened inside the Oval Office, Nikki Haley pitched a dramatic gambit to jump-start Middle East peace talks: cutting off U.S. funding to a U.N. program providing critical aid to Palestinian refugees.

It was a startling idea, especially coming from the ambassador to the United Nations, who months earlier had toured a West Bank refugee camp. Trump’s chief of staff, John F. Kelly — the only other person in the Oval Office at that moment, according to Haley — rushed out to find Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had made clear he would oppose cutting the funds.