Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is insisting that she had "no interest" in being part of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet, and she knows he was playing a "game" with his social media post excluding her and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from his administration.
"[Trump] can be shallow at times, and I think he showed that, but I don't have to be shallow," Haley said on her Sirius XM show, "Nikki Haley Live," which she broadcast from London on Wednesday. "And at the end of the day, I'm very comfortable with where I am, and I'm comfortable with what happened."
Trump announced on his Truth Social page last week that he would not be inviting Haley or Pompeo to join his administration and thanked them for their service.
Haley, who had campaigned against Trump in the primary, endorsed him after she left the race. Pompeo had also endorsed his campaign.
But Haley said Wednesday that Trump knows she had no interest in joining his Cabinet.
"His best friend, Steve Witkoff, came to our house in South Carolina, spoke to me and my husband, and basically wanted a truce between me and Donald Trump," Haley said on the program. "I told him at the time, there was no truce needed ... that Trump had my support; there was no issue on my end."
She added that Witkoff asked her if there was anything she wanted, but "there wasn't anything I wanted."
Haley also commented that Trump's transition director, Howard Lutnick, asked her several weeks ago for insight on people who could be in Trump's Cabinet.
"What I said is, I think it's really important that Trump surround himself with people that are going to tell him the truth," said Haley, adding someone she "thought would be good for Commerce Secretary and mentioned ... the U.N. ambassador should be a Cabinet pick. But I did not ask anything for me. And I have made it clear to everyone that I was not interested in the administration."
Haley wished Trump well on social media and noted that her husband and son were upset that she didn't say more.
"And the truth is, I know the game he was playing," said Haley. "I don't need to play that game. But more importantly, we have to look at the bigger picture. It is time to move on. It is time for us to focus on what America needs to do to be strong again, what America needs to do to be safe."
The American people, meanwhile, should "pray that everyone that [Trump] appoints does well," she said.
Haley also insisted that she does not take Trump's snub personally because "that's who he is."
The former ambassador welcomed former British Prime Minister David Cameron to the program, where they spoke at length about foreign affairs. Cameron urged the United States to have a stronger policy on Iran once Trump is in office.
"I don't know what a Trump presidency will bring in every area, but in this specific area of the Middle East, I think one of the biggest gaps in policy that we've had — not Britain so much, but I would say more America — is there's not been a clear Iran strategy," he said.
The Obama nuclear deal, he added, "kept Iran verifiably away from a nuclear weapon," and Trump had a policy of maximum sanctions and pressure, but under President Joe Biden, there has been "nothing" for the past few years.
"I hope one of the things that the Trump presidency can fix, and fix urgently, is a strong policy towards Iran," he said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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