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Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, announced on Oct. 9th she intended to resign from her position at the end of 2018 in an Oval Office press conference with President Donald Trump.
The administration has been rocked by high-profile departures — including Reince Priebus as chief of staff and James Comey as FBI director — since Trump took office in January 2017.
Here are all the top-level people who’ve either been fired or resigned from the administration, and why they left:
Nikki Haley
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations and former Governor of South Carolina, announced her resignation on Oct. 9th.
After Axios first reported the news, President Donald Trump announced to reporters in the Oval Office that Haley would resign at the end of 2018.
While the reason for her resignation was unclear, Trump said she previously told him she wanted to “take a break” after serving in the post for two years.
Haley was considered a moderating, stable force in the Trump cabinet who supported a strong US presence in the UN, sometimes at odds with National Security John Bolton, who takes a more hawkish stance on foreign affairs.
Appearing beside Trump in the Oval Office, Haley touted making progress on issues including trade and nuclear disarmament in Iran and North Korea. Trump praised Haley’s work, saying she could “have her pick” of roles if she wanted to return to the White House.
Haley also put to rest speculation that her resignation meant a presidential run for her in 2020.
“No, I am not running in 2020,” she said.
Scott Pruitt
Andrew Harnik/AP
Trump announced in a tweet on July 5 that he had accepted embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s resignation.
“Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this,” Trump wrote.
At the time of his resignation, Pruitt was the subject of several federal ethics investigations for his lavish spending habits, his suspected conflicts of interests with lobbyists, and for reportedly enlisting his official government staff to carry out his personal errands.
Democratic lawmakers accused Pruitt of using staff to get him a Trump tower mattress, to try to get his wife a position managing a Chick-fil-A franchise, and to find his family a new apartment in a posh DC neighborhood.
Tom Bossert
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Tom Bossert, Trump’s homeland security adviser, was reportedly fired from his position by John Bolton, the new national security adviser.
Bossert’s firing came on the second day of Bolton’s tenure, April 10. He worked closely with former national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, ousted earlier this month, and is reportedly a close ally of chief of staff John Kelly.
“The president is grateful for Tom’s commitment to the safety and security of our great country,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement confirming Bossert’s departure. “President Trump thanks him for his patriotic service and wishes him well.”
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- How 29-year-old Hope Hicks, Trump’s ‘real daughter,’ became the youngest White House communications director in history — and is now set to be a top executive at Fox
- How Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein became one of the most-watched officials in Washington
- The Trump administration admitted the lowest number of refugees the US has accepted 40 years — here’s what people go through to make it to the US
SEE ALSO: Trump’s staff turnover is higher than any administration in modern history
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