U.S. President Donald Trump has accepted the resignation of Mrs Nikki Haley, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN), who is set to leave her position at the end of 2018.
“At the end of the year, Nikki will be leaving,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Trump said Mrs Haley had told him six months ago she wanted to take some time off.
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“She’s done a fantastic job,” the president said.
Haley’s resignation comes on heels of calls for investigation into businessmen-funded flight.
A government watchdog group had on Monday called for an investigation into whether the Ambassador violated federal ethics regulations by accepting flights on private planes.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price had resigned in 2017 after public uproar over his use of private jets for official business.
Mrs Haley who is an outspoken supporter of president Trump in the diplomatic community, and a frequent critic of the UN’s stance towards Israel, was confirmed as US envoy to the UN in January 2017.
“It has been an honour…to serve the country I love so much. Look at what has happened with foreign policy in the last two years. Now, the US is respected,” Haley said.
“It was a blessing to go into the UN every day with body armour to defend the US,” she noted on her two years leading the US mission at the world body.