'Ivanka would be dynamite'
Ivanka Trump on Tuesday tamped down the suggestion her father could be poised to tap her as UN envoy, after President Donald Trump said she would make a "dynamite" replacement -- were it not for nepotism concerns.
"It is an honor to serve in the White House alongside so many great colleagues and I know that the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley. That replacement will not be me," Ivanka tweeted.
Hours earlier, her president father abruptly announced the resignation of Ambassador Nikki Haley, who in a surprise move will step down at the end of this year.
"We are looking at numerous people," Trump told reporters at the White House, without ruling out hiring his daughter.
"Ivanka would be dynamite. It's nothing to do with nepotism. But I want to tell you, the people that know, know that Ivanka would be dynamite. But, you know, I would then be accused of nepotism."
Trump has raised eyebrows with his blurring of the lines between relatives, family businesses and official duties since he was elected in 2016.
Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner both work in the White House as high-level unpaid advisers. Among other duties, Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, is tasked with creating a Middle East peace plan.
Earlier, meeting Haley in the Oval Office, Trump said she had done a "fantastic job" and would stay on to the end of the year.
A successor will be named "in the next two or three weeks," he said.
However, Haley was coy on her reasons for quitting, saying only that it was "important to understand when it's time to stand aside" after a string of challenging jobs.
US media speculated that Haley has ambitions for running against Trump in the primaries ahead of the 2020 elections, where she might be seen as a more moderate Republican alternative to his turbulent and often divisive presidency.
But she quashed the rumor. "No I'm not running," she said.
But while Washington insiders questioned whether Haley's departure signaled a new round of palace intrigue, a more prosaic explanation for the move was that she needs to earn a serious private sector salary.
Her 2018 government ethics financial disclosure shows her with debts that included a mortgage of more than $1 million.
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