Trump referred to ex-UN envoy Nikki Haley as a 'c**t', claims John Bolton's bombshell new memoir
Nikki Hailey has been one of President Donald Trump’s supporters, at least in public. The president, too, has been seen praising her openly. But the ‘mutual respect’ might not be the entire story. According to former National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton’s new White House memoir, which got leaked to the media, the president allegedly referred to Haley, former UN ambassador, as a “c**t” even as his advisers, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, wanted her on the 2020 vice-presidential ticket replacing Mike Pence.
The 71-year-old Bolton, who was sacked by Trump in September last year, has rattled the Trump administration with his forthcoming book (due to be released on June 23) titled ‘The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir’ and its contents have already been leaked to the media despite the administration taking legal steps to stall its release. The book has come up with several revelations that are bound to leave the Trump camp in a lot of discomfort ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Bolton recalled in his book a conversation with Trump in the Oval Office during which the latter complained how much he disliked Rex Tillerson, his first secretary of state who lasted in his office for just over a year. In that meeting, Trump told Bolton about a dinner that he had with both Tillerson and Haley where the former secretary of state allegedly called the woman a “c**t”.
Did Tillerson actually say such words to Haley, asks Bolton
“You're nothing but a c**t, and don't ever forget it,” Tillerson told Haley, according to Trump. Bolton said in his memoir that he wondered whether Tillerson had “actually said it”, noting that in most governments, a person is generally shown the door for making such unparliamentary remark. “And if he hadn't, why did Trump tell me he had?,” the former NSA wrote.
Last year, Haley said in her book 'With All Due Respect' that two of Trump’s former senior advisers tried to recruit her to work towards subverting Trump to “save the country” and one of them was Tillerson. The 48-year-old said she refused the plan of the two officials, one of whom was Tillerson, according to her book. She also called him “exhausting”. Haley, an Indian-American, is considered among the Republican Party’s leaders of the future. Trump picked her as the ambassador to the UN shortly after he won the 2016 presidential battle. However, during her stint at the UN, Haley had an experience of the administration alienating her after she sanctioned fresh sanctions against Russia over accusations against Russian companies aiding Syria’s chemical weapons program.
Haley stepped down from the post of the envoy in December 2018, a little short of two years but nine months more than Tillerson’s stay. Her departure was surprising to many and she was seen exchanging praises with the president at the time of moving out. Haley shares a rapport with Ivanka and Kushner, along with important power centers in the Trump administration, and even called Kushner, Ivanka’s husband, a “hidden genius”. Bolton wrote in his book that Ivanka and Kushner were in favor of replacing Pence with Haley as the vice-presidential candidate in 2020 and that the president had asked him about the idea around the 2018 holidays when Haley was approaching the end of her UN stint. “Trump also raised the widespread political rumor he would dump Pence from the ticket in 2020 and run instead with Haley, asking what I thought,” Bolton wrote. It was said that while Haley’s joining Trump’s team will win the latter women votes, removing Pence could see the GOP losing the evangelical support.