'Dissent is as American as apple pie': Trump's UN ambassador Nikki Haley insists that she challenges the president 'directly' in opinion column rebuking anonymous op-ed

Associated Press/Patrick Semansky

U.S. United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley stands on the sidelines before an NFL football game between the Washington Redskins and the Arizona Cardinals in Landover, Md., Sunday, Dec 17, 2017.

• Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, wrote a rebuttal to the bombshell anonymous New York Times op-ed that criticized President Donald Trump this week.
• In her own opinion column published in The Washington Post on Friday, night Haley rebuked the anonymous Trump administration official who declared themselves part of an internal "resistance" group intent on hamstringing the president.
• But Haley did not offer the kind of full-throated endorsement for Trump that other administration officials did hours after the anonymous op-ed was published.
• "I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country," Haley said of the Trump administration. "But I don't agree with the president on everything," she added.
• The White House has been reeling over that unsigned editorial this week, and Trump is said to have narrowed down a list potential "suspects" who may have written it.

Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, would like you to know she is displeased with the unnamed Trump administration official who wrote a New York Times op-ed declaring themselves part of an internal "resistance" against the president.

Haley published counter-op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday, rebuking the anonymous author who painted Trump as petulant, unintelligent, and ill-suited for the Oval Office.

"What this 'senior official in the Trump administration' has done, and is apparently intent on continuing to do, is a serious disservice - just to the president, but to the country," Haley wrote, echoing a common refrain coming from inside the administration this week.

Like the White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Vice President Mike Pence, adviser Kellyanne Conway, and others, Haley invited the unnamed author to resign if they're truly unhappy with the way Trump governs.

But unlike others among Trump's inner circle, Haley did not offer a full-throated endorsement of the president.

"I don't agree with the president on everything," Haley said. "When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or I meet with him in person."

Indeed, Haley has not been shy about breaking with Trump on some issues.

• She did that in January 2017 during her Senate confirmation hearing when she insisted the US should hold Russia accountable for its actions in Ukraine and Syria.
• Haley did it again in December when she said women accusing Trump of sexual misconduct "should be heard."
• And in July this year, one week after Trump praised Russian president Vladimir Putin after their joint meeting in Helsinki, Finland, Haley said, "We don't trust Putin. We never will."

"Everyone in government owes a greater loyalty to our country and our Constitution than to any individual officeholder," wrote in The Post on Friday.

"Dissent is as American as apple pie. If you don't like this president, you are free to say so, and people do that quite frequently and loudly," Haley said.

She continued: "But in the spirit of civility that the anonymous author claims to support, every American should want to see this administration succeed. If it does, it's a win for the American people."