More Donald Trump administration freefall as Nikki Haley’s staffers begin resigning
In addition to everything else that’s now going wrong for Donald Trump and his White House, the administration has been besieged in recent weeks by resignations, firings, and controversial departures. That’s included the Chief of Staff, Communications Director, Press Secretary, and three members of the National Security Council, among others. But now it turns out there’s major chaos in another corner of the Trump administration as well.
In recent weeks it’s seemed that Trump’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has become increasingly agitated in her role. At one point she said that she was done talking about North Korea, and after Trump posted classified information Twitter this week, she refused comment (link). And it turns out that agitation may be boiling over into her office. According to political reporter Laura Rozen (link), Haley’s spokesperson Jonathan Wachtel has now resigned, and her Chief of Staff is also leaving. This in turn raises the question of whether Nikki Haley herself may be on her way out.
It’s never been clear why Haley, who had a bright future in Republican politics, made the potentially career-killing move of signing on with the Donald Trump administration. If her goal was to demonstrate to future voters that she can handle foreign policy matters, she’s instead been tied to one incoherent Trump foreign policy failure after another. If there were a logical time for her to step away before her reputation and future are fully destroyed by standing too close to Trump, now might be the time.
In the past few weeks high profile Trump White House advisers Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, Anthony Scaramucci, and Ezra-Cohen Watnick have all resigned or been fired. The jobs of Jeff Sessions, Steve Bannon, H.R. McMaster and several others have also been either publicly threatened by Donald Trump himself, or thought to be in trouble. Now that Nikki Haley’s own staff is jumping ship, are we about to see her bolt as well? Stay tuned.
