It begins, as it often does, with a presidential tweet. "Important announcement with my friend, Ambassador Nikki Haley, at 10.30 o'clock in the Oval Office," writes Donald Trump, as if it were a TV program guide.

Time of the short message: 10.18 clock. After that - silence. Silence for three quarters of an hour.

In Trump's White House, everything is a telegenic cliffhanger. Even the surprise for many insiders - and for Trump not necessarily helpful - resignation of his UN ambassador. In any case, the news spreads promptly in advance - of course launched by the White House. Turn on, watch, stay tuned!

Haley was the last star in Trump's cabinet. No one sold his chaotic, crude foreign policy better. Sometimes charming, sometimes hard, sometimes slightly critical, but always in line. Haley was the highest-ranking woman who had anything to say under Trump and was able to score in female voters.

So why is she jumping off - so close to the Midterm congressional election, where Republicans need every vote? The timing alone is suspect.

AFP

Haley and Trump in the Oval Office

Finally, Trump and Haley appear in front of the cameras. They sit by the fireplace of the Oval Office, praise each other, assure that it's all normal. Even the sudden silence of one of the most important US voices in world politics.

Haley - who has taken office since Trump's inauguration - will stop at the end of the year, announces the president. She had already told him "six months ago" that she wanted to "free up a bit". She did "fantastic work", "we are all happy for you". And maybe one day she'll come back.

Strange show

Haley laughs heartily and retaliates with similar enthusiasm. "It was really a blessing," she says. "Now the US is respected again." Then she especially showered Trump's family with praise: "The First Lady was very nice to me," she reports unasked. "And I can not say enough good things about Jared and Ivanka."

It's a strange show. Especially as personnel changes under Trump otherwise often run much unworthier. Most whose presence was no longer wanted were fired by a blatant tweet. FBI chief James Comey was giving a speech, Foreign Minister Rex Tillerson, then Haley's direct boss, was sitting in the quiet village.

Neither Trump nor Haley is quite able to believe what they are saying in this 20 minute Eintracht performance. Instead, you feel that there is something else behind it. But nobody knows what.

REUTERS

Trump and Haley at the United Nations

Of course, rumors have been going on for a long time. About another transformation of the already so often converted US Cabinet, about ministers who have gambled away their bonus, and others who are supposed to rise. But even Trump's chief of staff John Kelly - who is now assigned to the first category - should have known nothing of Haley's plans.

Haley denies the loudest speculation herself: "No, I'm not running for 2020," she asserted when asked about her own presidential aspirations. Rather, she will then make campaign for Trump.

At first she irritated diplomats

The fact that Haley uses the UN post only as a springboard for the White House, she has been said for some time. She is only 46, who wants to end his career there? Previously she had been the first governor of North Carolina - then a Trump critic, later a fervent political advocate. That smells like strategy.

Even as a UN ambassador, she mastered this balancing act: a conservative who was able to defend Trump's wood-hammered doctrine of "America First" without betraying her morality and principles at the same time as the rest of the Republican Party.

At the same time, Haley quickly dispelled the misconception that she was soft and weak. Although it irritated other diplomats initially with their ignorance of protocol custom. Stand with us - or be against us, so your ultimatum to the world.

Soon, however, Haley was at least appreciated as an interpreter for Trump's word salad. "He slaps the right people, he hugs the right people," she said. "In the end, the US is very strong." This assessment was renewed now - even though the United States lost respect in the United, while Haley himself gained respect.

REUTERS

Trump in the UN Security Council

Because she was trying to gently distance herself from Trump again and again, especially in questions that could possibly be dangerous in the future - climate change, immigration, neo-Nazis. When she announced Russia sanctions in April, but the White House whistled her back and accused her of "momentary confusion," she fought back, "With all due respect, I'm not easily confused."

Ivanka Trump as successor?

And then there's the question of who inherits her in the UN embassy on New York's First Avenue. Dina Powell, Trump's Vice Security Advisor to January, has always been considered a potential successor. Richard Grenell, the US Ambassador in Berlin, and Senator Lindsey Graham are also in discussion.

Added to this was an even more prominent name this Tuesday - Ivanka Trump. The presidential daughter, who currently acts as a non-specific "adviser," is a close friend of Haley. Maybe that's why Haley's praise?

"Many people want to do it," Trump himself said. The casting show continues. Turn on, watch, stay tuned!