Nikki Haley resigns as US Ambassador to United Nations

Indian-American Nikki Haley on October 9, 2018 resigned as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

President Donald Trump made the formal announcement of her resignation and applauded her work. He cited that Haley wanted to take a break.

Haley, former South Carolina governor, gave no reasons for her exit, however, dismissed speculations that she was planning to run for Presidential bid in 2020. Rather, she said she would be campaigning for Trump's re-election in two years from now.

Her resignation just ahead of the crucial mid-term elections in November 2018 came as a shock and surprise to the American foreign policy and national security experts who believe it is a big loss to the Trump Administration.

About Nikki Haley

• Nikki Haley was born as Nimrata Randhawa to Indian immigrant parents; she was raised as a Sikh in Bamberg, South Carolina and later converted to Christianity.

• She began her career as a bookkeeper for her family's clothing store at the age of 13 years.

• In 2010, she became South Carolina's first minority governor and was re-elected in 2014.

• She was the first female Governor of South Carolina and the second Indian American, after Bobby Jindal, to serve as a Governor in the United States.

• From January 2011 to January 2017, she served as the 116th Governor of South Carolina.

• Prior to her tenure as Governor, she served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives.

• She received nationwide praise for removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol after a mass shooting on black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015.

• In January 2016, she delivered the official Republican response to President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address.

• In January 2017, President Donald Trump sent her nomination for Ambassador to the United Nations to the Senate.

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