Nikki Haley fires back at suggestion of affair with Trump

The idea that she’s having an affair with President Donald Trump is “highly offensive” and “disgusting,” Nikki Haley said.

It’s also not true, the United Nations ambassador and former S.C. governor said in an interview Thursday with Politico’s “Women Rule” podcast.

The rumor stems from remarks made by “Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff in an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Wolff “said he didn’t have enough proof to write about this it in his book, but be nonetheless told the comedian and commentator Bill Maher that the president, he believes, is having an affair and that close readers of his book would be able to figure out who he thinks the president is having an affair with,” Politico writer Eliana Johnson said on the latest “Women Rule” podcast. “Many people jumped to the conclusion that it was Nikki Haley.”

Haley’s response to that charge was swift and simple: “It is absolutely not true. It is highly offensive, and it is disgusting.”

“Fire and Fury” is Wolff’s controversial book about the Trump administration. It is well on its way to becoming one of the fastest selling nonfiction books in recent years. It has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the combined formats of hardcover, e-books and audio, publisher Henry Holt & Co. told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Published less than three weeks ago, it remains No. 1 on Amazon.com and other lists.

Wolff, in the book, wrote: “The president had been spending a notable amount of private time with Haley on Air Force One and was seen to be grooming her for a national political future.”

Haley served six years as South Carolina’s governor. She was selected in November to serve as Donald Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Johnson, the podcast host, calls Haley “probably the most high-profile woman in the Trump administration.”

“I’ve never talked once to the president about my future and I am never alone with him,” Haley said on the Politico podcast.

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Nikki Haley fires back at suggestion of affair with Trump."