President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a daughter of immigrants from India who has little international experience, to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, The Post and Courier newspaper and other media reported on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old governor has accepted the offer, the Charleston, South Carolina, newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources.

The choice of Haley, who embraces tolerance, may be aimed at offsetting Trump's divisive comments about immigrants and minorities, as well as accusations of sexism during his campaign for the Nov. 8 election in which he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Haley, who last year signed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol, condemned Trump during the Republican presidential primary campaign for not speaking out more forcefully against white supremacists. The Civil War flag, an emblem of the American South, is long associated with slavery.

Haley supported Trump rivals in the primary before saying last month she would vote for Trump despite reservations about his character. Trump, a Republican, is due to succeed President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on Jan. 20. </s> Nikki Haley, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations looks on during a meeting with US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval office of the White House October 9, 2018 in Washington, DC. - Nikki Haley resigned Tuesday as the US ambassador to the United Nations, in the latest departure from President Donald Trump's national security team. Meeting Haley in the Oval Office, Trump said that Haley had done a "fantastic job" and would leave at the end of the year. (credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/Getty Images)

DENVER (CBS4)– Some of Colorado’s Republican congressmen are reacting to United Nation’s Ambassador Nikky Haley’s resignation on Tuesday morning.

“I have given everything I’ve got these last eight years,” she said, referring to her six years as South Carolina governor as well as her time at the U.N. “And I do think it’s good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it.”

Haley made the announcement with Pres. Donald Trump by her side. Her resignation blindsided many administration officials and stirring speculation in the White House and beyond about the timing and reasons for the latest Trump shake-up just weeks before the November midterm elections.

Sen. Cory Gardner tweeted that “Because of @nikkihaley’s leadership, the United States has a powerful voice again at the United Nations. She’s been an incredible partner to work closely with on carrying out the Administration’s maximum pressure doctrine on North Korea.”

Rep. Doug Lamborn tweeted “Thank you Ambassador @nikkihaley for your incredible leadership. You’ve done tremendous work representing America at the United Nations!” </s> WASHINGTON—U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is resigning at the end of 2018, President Trump said on Tuesday.

At the Oval Office, the president said Ms. Haley had told him six months ago she would leave at the end of the year. The president called her “fantastic.”

Ms. Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina,... </s> United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Incoming UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will take the oath of office on Monday, hoping to show he is primed for action despite anxiety over the US role in the world under unpredictable Donald Trump.

During a formal ceremony at the General Assembly, Guterres will be sworn in before outlining in an address to all 193 UN member-states his plans to confront global crises and reform the 71-year-old United Nations.

The first former head of government at the UN helm, Guterres will take over from Ban Ki-moon on January 1, just weeks before President-elect Trump moves into the White House.

The choice of the former refugee chief as the ninth secretary-general energized many diplomats who see Guterres as a skilled politician, able to overcome divisions that have crippled the United Nations, notably over Syria.

The 67-year-old former prime minister of Portugal has put ending the five-year carnage in Syria at the top of his to-do list and is keen to put forward a new plan to achieve a settlement, diplomats say.

Trump's election however is complicating that strategy.

"This is tough for Guterres," said Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "He enjoyed a wave of diplomatic goodwill at the UN and looked set for a straightforward transition."

"Now he will find it hard to propose big institutional reforms or float new political initiatives until the Trump team is settled in and made its intentions clear."

Trump's victory has put a question mark over the Paris climate deal championed by Ban during his 10 years at the UN helm and stirred unease over the prospect of a new-style diplomatic dealmaking from the White House that could sideline the United Nations.

- Getting the US on board -

Trump has not made any statements about his view of the United Nations or multilateralism since his election, but his choice of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as US ambassador was seen in some circles as a positive signal.

While Haley has no foreign policy experience, she has been a player in negotiating trade deals for her state and earned respect in foreign circles for taking a stand against racism by pulling the Confederate flag from the state capitol.

The key to getting the new Trump administration on board may lie in Guterres' plans for reforming the world body to "turn it into something the US can support," said a Security Council diplomat.

He will have to show that "he is shaking up the system enough in order to really make it effective, slimming it down in some places, realigning it in others, in a very pro-active way," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

The United States is by far the biggest financial contributor, providing 22 percent of the UN's operating budget and funding 28 percent of peacekeeping missions which currently cost $8 billion annually.

Over the past months, Guterres has toured the capitals of the powerful five permanent Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - for talks on his new tenure.

"He will be a political secretary-general," said a Security Council diplomat, who was briefed on Guterres' plans. "He plans to put saving lives - peace and security issues - definitely at the center."

Guterres may on Monday announce the appointment of the deputy secretary-general and of his chief of staff - two powerful posts in the new leadership team.

Nigeria's Environment Minister Amina Mohammed is tipped to be the UN's new number two while the chief of staff post is also expected to be filled by a woman, in line with Guterres' pledge to push gender equality at the United Nations.

Over the coming months, he will make a series of appointments to head the departments of peacekeeping, political affairs and management among others, with the five council powers pushing candidacies from their countries for the plum insider jobs. </s> Washington: Nikki Haley, the Indian-American US Ambassador to the United Nations, resigned Tuesday, according to multiple US media reports. President Donald Trump has accepted 46-year-old Haley’s resignation as UN ambassador, Fox News reported. The reason behind her resignation was not clear. Haley was the senior most Indian-American official in the Trump administration. The former governor of South Carolina was confirmed as UN Ambassador four days after Trump was inaugurated in January 2017. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted that President Trump and Ambassador Haley will meet in the Oval Office Tuesday morning. </s> U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called on Americans to “speak with one voice and one heart” after a long and bruising political campaign.

Trump’s plea was made in a video posted on YouTube after he announced the selection Wednesday of two more Cabinet officials on Wednesday.

The officials are South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley who was appointed as ambassador to the United Nations and Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos who would work as secretary of Education.

“It is my prayer, that on this Thanksgiving, we begin to heal our divisions and move forward as one country, strengthened by a shared purpose and very, very common resolve..

“We have just finished a long and bruising political campaign; emotions are raw and tensions just don’t heal overnight.

“It doesn’t go quickly, unfortunately, but we have before us the chance now to make history together to bring real change to Washington, real safety to our cities, and real prosperity to our communities, including our inner cities.

“This is so important to me and to our country. But to succeed, we must enlist the effort of our entire nation,” Trump said.

Donald Trump began to broaden the base of his future cabinet Wednesday, nominating two conservative women including a critic, after his earlier picks rewarded campaign loyalists.

Trump’s nomination of South Carolina’s 44-year-old governor, Nikki Haley, as US ambassador to the United Nations will be seen as a sign he is ready to forgive some foes to raise a bigger tent.

But his choice of wealthy activist Betsy DeVos, a champion of alternatives to local government schools, as education secretary, was another victory for social conservatives.

Trump’s one-time presidential rival, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, appeared to be next in line for the nod — reportedly as housing secretary — after he posted on social media that an announcement was imminent.

Trump’s choice of Haley for the UN was announced amid reports that Trump is considering another vocal critic — former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney — for the key post of secretary of state.

And it followed a cordial chat between Trump and The New York Times, a newspaper he considers hostile, in which he softened his stance on climate change, torture and prosecuting his defeated rival Hillary Clinton.

The 70-year-old property tycoon also told the Times that he is “seriously, seriously considering” appointing widely respected retired Marine general James Mattis as his defense secretary.

The UN ambassador post is of cabinet rank and if Haley — a staunch conservative with no foreign policy experience — is confirmed by the Senate she will become a powerful figure in world diplomacy, despite previously clashing with Trump.

As one of two women tapped so far for Trump’s cabinet, the daughter of Indian immigrants also injects a measure of diversity in a group that until now consisted solely of men.

Last year, after a white supremacist murdered nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, Haley supported a decision by legislators to remove the Confederate flag from the state house.

The decision drew protests from racist groups. This year, while campaigning for Trump’s primary rival Marco Rubio, Haley called Trump out for his failure to repudiate the Ku Klux Klan.

“I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK. That is not a part of our party. That is not who we are,” she declared.

Trump, true to form, responded with one of his trademark Twitter insults, declaring: “The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley!”

Trump’s choice last week of the self-described “economic nationalist” Steve Bannon, head of the right-wing news platform Breitbart, as his chief strategist delighted white supremacists.

But on Tuesday, after video emerged of fans of the so-called alt-right making straight-armed salutes and chanting “Hail Trump,” the president-elect disavowed the movement.

As he works with his advisers in his luxury Mar-a-Lago golf resort outside Palm Beach, all eyes will be on the appointments he makes for a sign of the direction his administration will take.

 

 When it comes to security threats and global issues, the president-elect has reportedly received just two classified intelligence briefings since winning the presidency, far less than his immediate predecessors, according to the Washington Post newspaper.

The Republican’s limited engagement with his team of intelligence analysts has some officials questioning the real estate mogul’s commitment to national security or international affairs, arenas in which he has no significant experience.

When Trump’s November 8 election victory still seemed an unlikely prospect, many Republicans and conservative policy experts condemned his anti-Muslim rhetoric, his affinity for Russia or his isolationist and protectionist positions.

Many of these figures are now moderating their tone and looking for work, whether they are lured by the prospect of a powerful job or are keen to serve US interests as a moderating influence inside a Trump administration.

The former Iraq and Afghan war commander, retired general David Petraeus — who resigned as head of the CIA after he was caught sharing classified data with his mistress — made his pitch on Wednesday.

“If you’re asked, you’ve got to serve, put aside any reservations based on campaign rhetoric, and figure out what’s best for the country,” he told BBC Radio.

In May, Petraeus described hardline rhetoric like Trump’s threat to ban all Muslims from traveling to the United States as “toxic” and “corrosive to our vital national security interests.”

This week a Trump aide was photographed carrying notes on a border security plan into Trump Tower. The first three points were legible in the picture, and pointed to stringent vetting for Muslim visa applicants.

Trump and his family will stay at Mar-a-Lago through Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday and the weekend. More meetings will be held on Monday with transition officials, his press office said.

Meanwhile, erstwhile Democratic candidate Clinton — who lost to Trump by carrying a minority of the electoral college which decides the election outcome — saw her national lead in the popular vote tally pass two million votes. </s> Haley will step down at the end of the year, Trump said during a Tuesday morning meeting with the ambassador in the Oval Office. She had told him six months ago that she wanted to leave after serving two years in the role, the president said.

“Nikki Haley, ambassador to the United Nations, has been very special to me,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “She’s a fantastic person, very importantly, but she is also somebody who gets it.”

Trump said Tuesday that Haley has “done an incredible job” as ambassador, adding that he would be happy to have her back in any capacity.

Haley was confirmed as U.N. ambassador in January 2017. Previously, she was the governor of South Carolina. Haley had been an early critic of Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, calling him “everything a governor doesn’t want in a president” in February 2016. Trump had publicly fired back at her jabs, tweeting in March 2016 that “the people of South Carolina are embarrassed” by her.

Trump’s decision to appoint Haley to head the U.S. envoy to the U.N. was widely viewed as an olive branch to some of Trump’s conservative critics. She has helped the Trump administration navigate some of its most controversial foreign policy endeavors related to North Korea and Russia.

Haley said Tuesday that she was a “lucky girl” to have been able to serve as South Carolina’s governor and as U.N. ambassador.

“It has been an honor of a lifetime,” she said in the Oval Office. “Look at what has happened in two years with the United States on foreign policy. Now, the United States is respected. Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do.”

Nikki Haley on her resignation: "I don't have anything set on where I'm going to go."



"It's been eight years of intense time and I'm a believer in term limits," she adds. "I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside" https://t.co/fHGX05uoby pic.twitter.com/HpEUzzX761 — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 9, 2018

Last month, Haley drew backlash online after claiming world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly had laughed at Trump because they “respect” his “honesty” ― not because they disagreed when he proclaimed his administration to be one of the most accomplished in U.S. history.

Haley’s seemingly abrupt resignation prompted speculation that she may be considering a 2020 presidential bid, though she squashed those rumors Tuesday, stating she plans to campaign for Trump’s re-election. Haley’s replacement will be named within a few weeks, Trump said Tuesday.

“Nikki Haley has a very bright future and will be a key player in both the future of the Republican Party and our nation as a whole for years to come,” Graham tweeted.

.@nikkihaley was a strong voice for the U.S. & for moral clarity at the U.N. America was blessed to have her representing us. We thank her & her family for their service to our country & the cause of freedom & #HumanRights. pic.twitter.com/Ob43lGEixY — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 9, 2018 </s> WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has selected a charter school advocate and GOP donor from Michigan to be education secretary.

Betsy DeVos becomes the second woman chosen to fill a spot in Trump's Cabinet. Earlier Wednesday, Trump named South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations earlier in the day.

[INTERACTIVE: Donald Trump timeline + full list of appointments so far]

DeVos heads the advocacy group American Federation for Children. She's known for supporting charter schools and vouchers.

Before Trump's announcement, some conservatives were complaining about DeVos' ties to the political establishment. They also warned that she previously supported Common Core standards that Trump railed against during the campaign.

The 58-year-old DeVos is a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman. Her husband, Dick, is an heir to the Amway fortune and a former company president. </s> WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump planned to discuss the resignation of UN Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday, an unexpected departure for one of the president’s longest-serving top aides, two sources said.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who was confirmed just days after Trump’s inauguration, was expected to announce her resignation during a hastily scheduled meeting with Trump in the Oval Office.

Initially a critic of Trump, Haley helped shepherd in the administration’s tougher stance at the United Nations, including Trump's decision to leave the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year. She is also among the most prominent women in Trump's cabinet.

Haley, widely considered a possible candidate for higher office, also sometimes broke ranks with Trump. In the days leading up to this year’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, Haley indicated Trump’s speech before the Security Council would be focused on Iran. White House officials later dismissed that idea, saying the address would focus on controlling weapons of mass destruction.

More: Nikki Haley: World leaders laughed at Trump because they love his honesty

More: Trump's tough line on Iran could rankle world leaders at UN General Assembly

The daughter of immigrants from India, Haley was a South Carolina legislator who rode a wave of Tea Party support to win the governor's race in 2010.

She won re-election in 2014, but cut her second term short to join Trump's diplomatic team. Republicans in South Carolina, a key state for Trump in the 2016 GOP primaries, urged Trump to recruit Haley, who was also discussed for the secretary of State slot.

There has been friction between Haley and Trump.

In April, White House aides criticized Haley for getting ahead of the administration in announcing Russia sanctions; Haley, meanwhile, bristled at aide Larry Kudlow's suggestion that the UN amassador had "momentary confusion" over the issue.

"With all due respect, I don't get confused," Haley replied in a statement.

Haley also had to take the unusual step of denying in public that she had an affair with Trump.
President-elect Donald Trump names South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.