Nikki HaleyBlunt as he may be, Nikki Haley says she knows President Trump always has America’s best interests at heart. But she also acknowledges it probably wouldn’t hurt if he cut down on the tweeting.
Speaking Thursday at the NTEA Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, Haley touched on her experience working with Trump as his Ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2019, as well as what she learned in state government as a legislator and then governor of South Carolina.
Speaking candidly about her time in the Trump Administration, Haley said she found working with the President to be challenging but not in a way that would be unique compared to other leaders. Trump can definitely be firm in his opinions, but he also respects straightforwardness and honesty from his team and is open to evolving his positions when a better solution is out in front of him, Haley says.
“There were times when he’d put out a tweet and I’d call him and tell him you’re not helping,” she says. “But if he was doing something I thought was right I would fight for him and support him; and when he did something I didn’t agree with I was honest with him.”
Haley says despite the reputation he’s earned in the media, Trump was generally very accepting of direct criticism or advice from those around him. She said Trump told her that her outspokenness was one of the main reasons he recruited her to his cabinet in 2017 and something he continued to appreciate about her while she worked in the U.N.
Haley says Trump “would ask why” when her opinions were different than his and would occasionally alter his positions after hearing her thoughts.
“He really did listen and you could move him,” he says.
Haley says understanding Trump requires the willingness to not accept every tweet at face value. “For those who are put off by it, I get it. His style is not my style,” she says, but adds when you look at his overall results after three years in office, one can see that “he does care about moving the ball and keeping his promises.”
Haley also believes Trump’s persona and willingness to be unconventional has benefited the United States in global politics. She says Trump enabled her to enter the U.N. and make it clear to the global community “what we were against and what we were for.”
And though she’s longer at the U.N. every day fighting those battles, she believes her time there helped the nation “gain the power of our voice [globally]. Many of those countries want us to lead. They would rather follow us than Russia or China.”
Haley also touched on her early years in politics first as a state legislator and then two-term governor of South Carolina. Haley says one of the biggest takeaways from her time in state government is the importance of term limits. She believes states and the federal government alike should limit the amount of time any one person can be actively involved in government.
She says legislators who spend too much time in one role can become lazy and stagnant in their roles, unwilling to consider fresh ideas or push for valuable reform.
When someone is in congress for 20 to 30 years, “you think you know everything and you’re not willing to try new things,” she says.
