On Thursday evening, outgoing ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley drew laughs with a speech that read like list of bad comments on a racist, misogynistic 4Chan thread.
Speaking at the at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, she mocked undocumented immigrants—“You’re all familiar with diplomatic immunity, it’s an exemption from prosecution. Or as [New York City] Mayor [Bill] de Blasio calls it, a sanctuary city”—and the #MeToo movement—
“When I saw the mayor backstage, I told him I was really glad to be here. He said, ‘Me too.’ Mayor, it’s not a good idea for a man to ever use that phrase.”
Haley has been touted by several outlets as a “rising star,” including the New York Times, which called her speech a “let-loose opportunity.” Haley did, indeed, let loose some of her xenophobia, I suppose.
Haley’s departure may be setting her up for something bigger, and the Times posits that she’s attempting to “distance herself from any setbacks that may be suffered by the Republicans in the November midterm elections, which are less than three weeks away.”
Fuck that. Unlike many of the Trump officials who have left this administration, she is not trying to rehabilitate her image—from her speech, it is clear that she is proud of the Trump administration and honored to have been an active arm of the machinery that carried out its agenda. She thinks the legacy she’s leaving behind is the kind of thing you can laugh off. The wealthy and powerful people at the tables behind her—comedians, television personalities, former public officials—clearly agreed. It was all smiles from everyone that night.