President Trump participating in the Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem, Sept. 24, 2018, at the UN in New York. As she heads out the door, Haley still defends the inflammatory remarks and attitudes of Trump, the author writes. SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD/WHITE HOUSE
Nikki Haley has raised a surprise question as she heads for the door: How low can she go?
Brett Schaefer, a fellow at The Heritage Foundation, has been nominated by the White House to be a member of a crucial UN committee on contributions.
United States Ambassador Nikki Haley with David Beasley, the World Food Program executive director, July 13, 2017. Haley and Beasley are former governors of South Carolina, and Haley nominated Beasley for the UN job in 2017.
A son of David Beasley, the World Food Program executive director, worked briefly this year for the UN agency, but it is not clear what his status was, given original discrepancies. Beasley is a former governor of South Carolina, and the agency’s largest donor is the United States.
Nikki Haley, America’s envoy to the United Nations, held the rotating presidency of the Security Council in September. Here, she chairs a Council meeting on the humanitarian status of the war in Syria, Sept. 7, 2018. She resigned from her job on Oct. 9. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
So it’s happened again. Big deal. A top Trump administration official has jumped ship, one of dozens to do so less than two years into the president’s term.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, suddenly announced on Oct. 9 that she was resigning her post and leaving by the end of the year. The news seemed to have taken many people in the UN community by surprise, as ambassadors from the Netherlands, France, Sweden and others heaped praise on her personally and her work representing America at the UN.
A US-led Security Council resolution focused on improving peacekeepers’ performance was approved on Sept. 21, 2018, but is devoid of details on how the UN will measure such assessments. Pakistani troops, above, are among the UN’s largest continents in peacekeeping. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO
António Guterres, the secretary-general, giving a toast at a luncheon for world leaders gathered at UN headquarters, Sept. 25, 2018. The General Assembly may have laughed at President Trump in his speech that day but, more broadly, leaders are realizing the extent of the US government’s disregarding a constructive role across the earth, the writer says. LI MUZI/POOL
The UN audience could only gasp when Donald Trump made his stormy debut in the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 as president of the United States. This year they laughed in his face.
An LGBT rights rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A new rule from the State Department requires that all foreign nationals working in the United States for international organizations, like the UN, to be married in order for their same-sex spouses to receive a visa. CREATIVE COMMONS
Pierre Krahenbuhl, who runs the UN agency for Palestine refugees, left, and President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine. The agency, called Unrwa, said it raised $118 million in a fund-raising lunch at the UN on Sept. 27, 2018, leaving a $68 million gap for the year, after the Trump administration ended its $300 million annual contribution.
Donald Trump led his first-ever UN Security Council debate, on nonproliferation, on Sept. 26, 2018. In a surprisingly subdued but stern meeting attended by many heads of state representing the Council’s members, they spoke on a range of issues, from the use of chemical weapons to the Iran nuclear deal. Out of the blue, Trump warned China not to interfere with US midterm elections and to stay out of future US voting. KACIE CANDELA
