It’s a pickle. Do you ignore an immature president and take turns plugging the hole in the dike? (Hey, Haley, we could use some help over here!) Or, do you do everything in your power to avoid actions that might cause the dike to crumble? One thing you don’t do, obviously, is confide in an unscrupulous, self-serving future presidential candidate.

Haley’s loyalty to Trump at the expense of Tillerson and Kelly is both a hat-tip to Trump’s base and a curtsy to the president. She plainly made a political calculation that people would find “her truth” courageous and that flattery aimed at Trump would not be wasted. “To undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing, and it goes against the Constitution and it goes against what the American people want,” Haley intoned during a CBS News interview.

This would be true if said president weren’t almost daily threatening to destroy order in the civilized world and didn’t behave as though he were checking off the characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder. But there’s an inherent irony in banking one’s future on preaching loyalty through disloyalty. To what end does such a revelation, if true, warrant such tongue-wagging?