Performance of US envoy to UN stirs political notice

NEW YORK — Nikki Haley keeps delivering for Donald Trump.

Whether leading efforts to isolate North Korea or hailing cuts to the United Nations budget, Haley’s ability to channel Trump’s blunt style is prompting fellow U.N. envoys and foreign policy specialists to wonder whether the 45-year-old former South Carolina governor is laying the groundwork to succeed her boss in the Oval Office.

U.N. ambassadors from other nations take Haley’s “obvious domestic political ambitions” in stride, said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Most foreign representatives are willing to shrug off her hard-line positions on Israel and U.N. costs as necessary political posturing.