U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley suggested Wednesday that world leaders laughed at President Trump’s speech the day before because they respect and enjoy his honesty, arguing that negative media coverage of the president has hurt America’s standing in the world.
Haley, in an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” blamed the media for misinterpreting why U.N. General Assembly members chuckled when Trump boasted that his administration’s accomplishments outdid those of nearly any other in American history.
“When he said that, they love how honest he is,” she said. “It’s not diplomatic, and they find it funny. I mean, when he goes and he is very truthful, they kind of were taken back by it.
{mosads}”Whether he said good things about him or not, they love that he’s honest with them,” she added. “And they’ve never seen anything like it, so there’s a respect there. I saw that the media was trying to make it something disrespectful; that’s not what it was. They love to be with him.”
In the opening remarks of his speech on Tuesday, Trump touted that his administration “has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country in its first two years.”
Audience members then began chuckling and the laughs grew louder when Trump said “so true.”
Trump smiled and paused, before adding, “I didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s OK.”
Haley cited the hoopla surrounding the laughter as an example of unfair criticism Trump has endured from the media and other observers.
“It’s gotten so disgusting, really,” Haley said. “The idea that he’s not mentally fit, the idea that we would be talking about the 25th Amendment. None of that is true. It could not be farther from the truth.”
Haley claimed that she spoke to a world leader yesterday, who she declined to name, that questioned why there was any coverage of impeachment deliberations or the 25th Amendment.
“How can you honestly think a man who doesn’t know what he’s doing is getting this much done on jobs, on trade deals … Americans are living better than they ever have and you’re going to question his leadership,” Haley said.
“I looked at the media yesterday, and they all want to talk about what the worldview of the president is,” she added. “What they need to understand is the world doesn’t understand the media in America right now.”
The New York Times reported last week that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein proposed wearing a wire to record Trump after he fired ex-FBI Director James Comey, and suggested recruiting Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
Rosenstein has disputed the story. He is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Thursday.
That account came a couple weeks after the publication of veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” which describes examples of high-ranking staff members pushing back against some of Trump’s ideas out of fear the president could hurt national security and international relationships.
A New York Times op-ed earlier this month by an anonymous senior administration official expressed similar sentiments about a band of staffers who have thwarted Trump’s “worst inclinations.”
The president frequently blasts negative coverage of his administration as “fake news,” and has decried the Woodward book as “fiction.”
A slew of Cabinet members and top White House staffers, including Haley, came forward to deny they penned the op-ed.
Haley was recently the subject of an inaccurate media report when The New York Times published a story implying she was responsible for the purchase of expensive curtains for her New York residence. The curtains were in fact purchased during the Obama administration.