Popular Indian-American Republican politician Nikki Haley has revealed that Donald Trump, soon after winning the November 2016 US presidential election, wanted to talk to her about being his Secretary of State.
“I was the Governor of South Carolina, the best job serving the state that raised me. And then I got a phone call (after the 2016 elections,” Haley, 48, said during a fireside chat organised by Indian Voices for Trump in Norristown in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The important phone call, she said, was from Reince Priebus, the then chairman of the Republican National Committee who later went on to become Trump’s first White House Chief of Staff.
“And he said Nikki, the president-elect wants to see you and I said, okay about what? He said he wants to talk to you about the Secretary of State. I said I can’t be Secretary of State, I’m the governor. And he said, he wants to talk to you,” she said during the conversation with Dr Merlynn Carson, co-chair of Indian Voices for Trump.
Haley flew to New York to meet Trump. During the meeting, Haley revealed that she told the president-elect that she was not the right fit for the job of the top American diplomat, but she was ready to help him in any way he wanted.
Days later, she received another call from Priebus, who told her that Trump would call her later with the offer of US Ambassador to the UN, she said.
The president called and asked her if she was going to do the job.