By Rebecca Ballhaus, Farnaz Fassihi and Michael C. Bender, Oct. 9, 2018

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, a onetime critic of President Trump who became an advocate of his foreign-policy views on the world stage, said she is resigning her post at the end of 2018.

In an Oval Office appearance with Ms. Haley, Mr. Trump said she told him six months ago that she planned to leave the administration at the end of the year. That was about the same time the president tapped Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state, a job for which Ms. Haley had been considered a candidate.

“We will miss you,” Mr. Trump told her.

Ms. Haley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina, had been selected for the U.N. role in November 2016. She didn’t specify her reasons for leaving, but said she has no plans to run for office in 2020, when the next U.S. presidential election will be held.

Mr. Trump said he would likely announce a successor in the next two to three weeks. He said “many people” were interested in the post and that he would be discussing possible appointments with Ms. Haley and other officials.

The announcement took many of the president’s top aides by surprise, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump is expected to consult with Mr. Pompeo and John Bolton, the White House national-security adviser who served as U.N. ambassador under former President George W. Bush, one of the people said.

Among those who previously have expressed interest in the post are Richard Grenell, U.S. ambassador to Germany, and Dina Powell, a former deputy national-security adviser for Mr. Trump and currently a member of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s management committee. Neither returned calls seeking comment.

Ms. Haley will leave an administration that has been marked by unusually high turnover in the nearly two years since Mr. Trump took office. In his first year, Mr. Trump saw a turnover rate of 34%, the highest in 40 years, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of White House turnover rates over three decades. Since the beginning of this year, Mr. Trump has seen the departure of a secretary of state, national security adviser, communications director and deputy chief of staff, among other officials.

While no shifts in foreign policy are expected as a result of Ms. Haley’s departure, Mr. Trump could opt to choose a successor who publicly hews more closely to his views, as he did in choosing Messrs. Bolton and Pompeo.

Ms. Haley leaves the White House on good terms. After several senior administration officials were dismissed via the president’s Twitter account, Mr. Trump spent 30 minutes praising her with reporters present.

She was one of the few administration officials able to offer subtle criticism of the president or get out ahead of him on issues—her comments on Russia were consistently much tougher than the president’s—without drawing his ire.

“I don’t know how she did it, but he never seemed to get really mad at her,” one former White House official said.

The one thing that did rile Mr. Trump, as he described it to aides, was Ms. Haley’s ambition, said one person familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump earlier this year referred to her privately as a “showboat,” the person said.

Ms. Haley was a frequent critic of Mr. Trump during the 2016 campaign and had endorsed two of his primary opponents, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas.

She clashed with the White House last spring after saying the administration would imminently impose new sanctions against Russia over its support for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. When White House officials later said she spoke prematurely, she issued a retort: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” she said.

In a resignation letter to Mr. Trump dated Oct. 3, Ms. Haley said one condition of her serving as U.N. ambassador had been “being free to speak my mind on the issues of the day.”

“You made those commitments and you have absolutely kept them all,” she wrote. She said she expected to “continue to speak out from time to time on important public policy matters.”

Despite occasional differences, Ms. Haley is aligned with the president in many areas and has often come to the administration’s defense. Last month, she wrote an op-ed piece criticizing an anonymous column written by an administration official critical of the president.

“I don’t agree with the president on everything,” she wrote. “When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person.”

She has backed Mr. Trump’s views on recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as well as his opposition to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and his skepticism toward many U.N. agencies.

At the U.N., Ms. Haley was seen as a fierce advocate for Mr. Trump’s views. Diplomats and U.N. officials said they hadn’t expected her resignation.

“We are certainly very surprised,” said one Security Council diplomat who said Ms. Haley had given no indication that she would resign.

Israel’s ambassador Danny Danon praised her tenure. “Thank you for standing with the truth without fear. Thank you for representing the values common to Israel and the United States,” he said.

U.N. officials said that Ms. Haley had not informed Secretary-General António Guterres in advance of her decision to depart.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Mr. Guterres expressed his “deep appreciation” for Ms. Haley’s work and that the two had “a very productive and strong working relationship promoting constructive ties between the U.S. and the U.N.”

In her Twitter messages and Instagram posts, Ms. Haley often referred to Mr. Trump as a “great president” and praised him for making the U.S. stronger.

She came to the U.N. post without previous foreign-policy experience. The position often thrust her into the spotlight and enabled her to win favor among conservatives for her staunch defense of Israel and sharp criticism of Iran and Russia.

For a time at the U.N., international diplomats saw her as the face of U.S. foreign policy, noting differences between Mr. Trump and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. She made a point at the U.N. to project the impression that she was very close to Mr. Trump and that she “had his ear,” one diplomat said.

Diplomats and U.N. officials also viewed her as a moderating voice within the administration, helping convince Mr. Trump to remain engaged with the U.N. or keep international pressure on Russia.

However, her profile as a main administration foreign-policy figure receded somewhat after Mr. Trump earlier this year appointed Mr. Pompeo as his new secretary of state and Mr. Bolton as national-security adviser. After Mr. Pompeo’s confirmation, a framed portrait of Mr. Pompeo went up on the wall of the entrance to the U.S. mission to the U.N., next to portraits of Mr. Trump and Ms. Haley. Mr. Tillerson’s picture was never displayed.

Among diplomats who frequently are leery of Mr. Trump’s foreign-policy style, one said of Ms. Haley, “She is the best we could get in this administration.”

On her first day at the U.N., she said she would collect names of countries which didn’t side with the U.S. When the General Assembly voted to condemn the U.S. for declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel, Ms. Haley threw a party for countries that voted to support the U.S. In recent months, she said the U.S. should make financial aid to foreign countries conditional on their support for U.S. policies.

—Michael R. Gordon contributed to this article.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/nikki-haley...ions-1539096122

Too bad it wasn't Jeff Sessions!