Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who has worked on campaigns for George W. Bush and John McCain, is doling out free advice to Nikki Haley, and President Trump's not going to like it.
Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Sunday that the Trump administration was planning to impose new sanctions against Russia on Monday, which ended up not happening. Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said on Tuesday that Haley had "momentary confusion," to which Haley responded, "With all due respect, I don't get confused."
Schmidt thinks it's simple: Haley must step down. "Trump has shattered Nikki Haley's credibility as irrevocably as he obliterated his moral authority after Charlottesville," he tweeted Tuesday night. "Trump has humiliated her and she is at a fork in the road. Her choice is either to resign or take on the permanent stench of one more tainted factotum." Schmidt, a never-Trumper, went on to predict that the "first person to resign from this cancerous administration on principle will look back on that day the same way Powerball winners look back on the moment they bought their golden ticket." Should Haley remain part of the administration, he added, "it will be at the cost of her dignity."