The South Carolina governor’s confidants say she was shocked last week to receive a call from the incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, asking her to a meeting in New York City to discuss a handful of jobs, including secretary of state and the one she was named to Wednesday, ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley isn’t just the first woman, the first minority and the first person under the age of 50 he has nominated to a Cabinet-level post — she’s also the first Republican who wasn’t a steadfast Trump supporter…
If she is confirmed as U.N. ambassador, the post will burnish her résumé, which would prove very useful in a presidential run — in the past, the job has served as a valuable springboard for ambitious public servants. George H.W. Bush served as Richard Nixon’s ambassador to the U.N. in the early 1970s, before going to chair the Republican National Committee, run the CIA, serve as Ronald Reagan’s vice president and ultimately win the presidency. Gerald Ford’s U.N. ambassador, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, went on to become one of the most influential senators of the 20th century. Richard Holbrooke, Bill Clinton’s nominee, was one of the most influential voices in international affairs for decades.
Haley will be just 48 years old at the end of Trump’s first term.
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