In an administration where White House officials regularly employ rhetorical jiujitsu to defend the president, Nikki Haley’s blunt response to a question about Donald Trump’s conduct toward women was an extraordinary rebuke. “Women who accuse anyone should be heard,” the United Nations ambassador told CBS’s John Dickerson Sunday on Face the Nation, referring to the multiple women who have accused the president of sexual harassment or assault. “And I think we heard from them prior to the election. And I think any woman who has felt violated or felt mistreated in any way, they have every right to speak up.” Trump, who has claimed that all of his accusers are lying, was reportedly infuriated.

Sources within the diplomatic community see politics intertwined with her principles. For much of the past year, Haley has marched in lockstep with Trump on foreign policy, translating his Twitter tantrums into something like diplomacy in New York. Unlike Rex Tillerson, who has been sidelined by Trump and is expected to resign from his post within weeks, Haley has become a rare success story in Trumpworld, using her distance from Washington to defend the president’s policies without burning her own credibility. So for those familiar with how Haley operates, the decision to criticize Trump appeared calculated. “I think it is the most revealing of her barely disguised political ambitions in the post Trump Republican Party,” a senior State Department staffer told me. (A spokesperson for Haley declined to comment. A White House official later told NBC News that Trump was not upset with what Haley said, but with the “news reporting.”)

The conversation surrounding sexual assault has changed rapidly. Three congressmen accused of sexual misconduct have resigned in recent weeks, as the national reckoning that began with Harvey Weinstein expands to Washington. Most recently, the focus has turned back to Trump, whose endorsement of alleged child predator Roy Moore has re-invigorated debate over his own improprieties—a debate that Haley said should be encouraged. “You know, that’s for the people to decide,” she told Dickerson, when asked about the White House line that voters had already litigated the issue. “I know that he was elected. But, you know, women should always feel comfortable coming forward. And we should all be willing to listen to them.” (Moore has denied any criminal wrongdoing.)

As one of the highest-ranking women in the Trump administration, Haley’s comments were both refreshing and stunning. “I don’t know of a recent example of a Cabinet member being quite so frank with their assessment of accusations against the president,” Brett Bruen, a former foreign-service officer told me. They also stand in stark contrast to Haley’s comments after the racist violence in Charlottesville, when she had a “private conversation” with the president about his equivocating response, but stopped short of criticizing him publicly. While the former governor rose to political prominence with her widely lauded decision to remove a Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds, she was mostly silent this summer as Trump campaigned for the preservation of monuments to slavery.

On the issue of sexual assault, however, it appears Haley sees a place to take a stand. Diplomats I spoke with suggested that Haley, who is widely seen as having presidential ambitions, is seeking to position herself as a strong voice on women’s issues and distance herself from an administration with a messaging problem. “She is walking a fine line in positioning herself politically as an independent enough voice on these issues, abetted by her distance from D.C., as she can without alienating the Big Man—although given his unpredictability and volatility it is playing a bit with fire,” the senior State Department staffer said. Bruen noted similarities between Haley’s comments and moves by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, another rumored presidential hopeful, who led Democrats in calling for Al Franken’s resignation last week. “She clearly wanted to say it and obviously that raises the question of why,” Bruen said. “Gillibrand got kudos for telling someone from her own party to leave, and now she looks presidential. So maybe, that’s what Nikki was thinking.”