(CNN) When anyone asks Nikki Haley whether she might run for president one day, she acts as though someone has just asked her if she can fly.

"Everyone thinks that I'm ambitious and everybody thinks I'm trying to run for something and everybody thinks I want more," the US Ambassador to the United Nations told CNN's Jamie Gangel in the spring. "I can't imagine running for the White House."

That is not, strictly speaking, true.

Haley has spent much of her adult life in elected office. She served in the South Carolina state House from 2004 through 2010. That year she was elected governor. She served in that job until she was nominated by Trump to her current position late last year.

Politicians think about politics. And ambitious ones -- as Haley is -- think about making it to the top of their profession. And the top of their profession is the presidency.

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