One of the few high-ranking women in Donald Trump’s administration has denied rumors of a sexual affair with the president.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, called the speculation “highly offensive” and “disgusting”.
The rumor spread online and in Washington after the publication of a book, Fire and Fury, by the journalist Michael Wolff, who said on TV last week he was “absolutely sure” Trump was having an affair.
“It is absolutely not true,” Haley said in an interview with Politico, regarding speculation that Wolff was referring to her when describing the US president’s alleged lover.
She said Wolff had made a basic factual error in his book, when he wrote that “the president had been spending a notable amount of private time with Haley on Air Force One”.
“I have literally been on Air Force One once and there were several people in the room when I was there,” Haley said.
Haley, 46, who has been married for 20 years and has two children, was the first woman to be elected governor of South Carolina and the second Indian-American governor in US history.
She told Politico insinuations she had had an affair with the president fit a pattern of attacks on successful women.
Haley is one of four women in the Trump administration with cabinet-level positions. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, has an influential informal role.
Haley, who is also rumored to be a potential future Republican presidential candidate, said at the end of the 2016 presidential race she was “not a fan” of Trump – but voted for him.
She told Politico: “[Wolff] says that I’ve been talking a lot with the president in the Oval [Office] about my political future. I’ve never talked once to the president about my future and I am never alone with him.”
She also insisted she had not angered Trump when she told CBS in December women who have accused the president of sexual misconduct “should be heard”.
The Haley speculation was the second instance this month of a rumor emerging that the president had conducted an extramarital affair.
Earlier in January an interview was published in which Stephanie Clifford, who performs in pornographic films under the name Stormy Daniels, said she had an affair with Trump shortly after his marriage to Melania Trump.
Lawyers for Trump have called Clifford’s account false.