- Trump has changed his tone on Russia.
Nikki Haley is someone with a long
political future and she's very aware of that.
She is not someone that is about to sit and kowtow,
we've seen that on her statements on Russia consistently
since she's become UN Ambassador.
There's no question that she's been
probably the most hawkish of the major
Trump advisors on Russia from day one,
when a lot of people have been
criticizing Trump for being unwilling
to go after Putin individually.
Trump has changed his tone on Russia.
He has become harder-lined, he has supported
putting very significant sanctions
against major Russian oligarchs,
which is putting a serious crimp on the Russian economy,
much worse than what we saw from the Europeans,
that was Trump directly supporting those sanctions.
But we've also seen Trump still angry
about the idea of getting rid of 60 Russian diplomats
and doing more than individual European countries,
even though the U.S. is bigger.
We've seen Trump being much more upset
about, most recently with Nikki Haley,
when she says, we're gonna, we're definitely
putting more sanctions on, and he overturns her.
So, there's something about the Trump/Putin relationship,
at least in Trump's mind, that makes him
not want to take him on in the same way
that pretty much everyone in congress,
and many of those in his own administration want him to.
It's unusual, particularly because Trump
usually doesn't care about offending people.
Like if someone annoys him or does something bad to him
he is the first one to hang up the phone,
we saw that with the Australian Prime Minister for example.
He's the first one to insult and offend directly
in a meeting, we've seen that with a host of leaders,
the Mexicans, for example, many of the Europeans.
(crowd noise)
This is not something that upsets Trump personally,
so it's a little unusual, and because it's Nikki Haley,
who sees herself not just as a Trump person
but, you know, former governor, someone that
certainly is thinking about higher positions in the future,
she's thinking about her own brand,
more than she's thinking about her brand vis-a-vis Trump.
And, obviously if she gets in a lot of headlines
that is, that makes her a little more vulnerable
in terms of Trump's own decision to keep her or not,
but at the end of the day, everyone in the
Trump administration has a half-life
that seems to be a little smaller, a little shorter
than that of other administrations we've ever seen.
So whether she thinks she can really last
for four years or eight, I think is an open question.
(light synth music)