Trump on Nikki Haley's UN replacement: 'How good would Ivanka be?'

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Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is tendered her resignation as Ambassador to the United Nations. She will remain until the end of the year.
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is floating a shortlist of candidates to replace United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley but the first person he appeared to be floating was his daughter, Ivanka Trump. 

“How good would Ivanka be?” the president told reporters before leaving for a campaign rally in Iowa, adding she would be “dynamite.”

“I think Ivanka would be incredible. That doesn’t mean I’d — you know, I’d pick her, because you’d be accused of nepotism, even though I’m not sure there’s anybody more competent in the world,” the president added. “But we are looking at numerous people.”

Before the option of UN Ambassador Ivanka Trump got too far, she put the rumors to rest in a tweet. 

It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me.

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 9, 2018

“It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me,” she wrote. 

Later Tuesday aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters he had drafted a shortlist of five potential replacements, including Dina Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive and former deputy national security advisor. He said Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, is not on the list but that he would be willing to consider him.   

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President Trump, joined by from left, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, United Kingdom Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Jonathan Allen, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, national security adviser H.R. McMaster, and, Bolivian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Pedro Luis Inchauste Jordán, speaks during a lunch with the United Nations Security Council in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Jan. 29, 2018.  Carolyn Kaster, AP

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This isn’t the first time that nepotism has come up with President Trump. He gave high-ranking jobs at the White House to Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, that skirted federal nepotism laws. 

Some on Twitter complained that if Ivanka was given the U.N. job, it would violate federal laws. 

Merriam-Webster posted the definition of nepotism on Twitter, saying it was “favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship.” 

 

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