President Trump offered praise for his outgoing ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, on Wednesday, telling reporters that she will go on to make “a lot of money” following her departure at the end of the year.
Trump reportedly made the comments during a public briefing on preparedness for Hurricane Michael, which made landfall Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane.
{mosads}The president told reporters that he hopes Haley will return to serve in his administration in the future, according to The Associated Press, saying that she is “going to make a lot of money” in the meantime.
“[It] was very elegantly done,” he added, referring to her resignation that was made public Tuesday. Haley wrote that she would resign at the end of the year in a letter dated Oct. 3. She later made the announcement public during a briefing with Trump on Tuesday morning.
Trump went on to note, according to the AP, that former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell is on his shortlist of possible names to replace Haley, who says she will remain on until a replacement is named or the end of the year. He declined to offer further details of his plans.
Haley’s letter Tuesday stated only that she planned to return to the private sector and that she would “surely” not be a candidate for public office in 2020.
“It’s been eight years of intense time and I’m a big believer in term limits,” she told reporters Tuesday, referring to her time as governor of South Carolina and in the Trump administration. “You have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job.”
On Tuesday, the president said Haley had made the position of U.N. ambassador more “glamorous” by being a frequent public face of the Trump administration on the world stage.
“I think it’s become maybe a more glamorous position than it was two years ago,” Trump said. “Maybe, I wonder why, but it is. She’s made it a very glamorous position.”