Aside from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, she might be the only Trump Cabinet-level official whose reputation has actually been enhanced by participation in an administration rife with corruption, racism, incompetence and meanness. The former South Carolina governor now has foreign policy credentials. She also has avoided the public genuflecting toward the president practiced by so many of her peers, to their immense discredit. She has also pushed back against Trump cheerleaders when necessary, memorably responding to economic adviser Larry Kudlow’s suggestion that she was “confused” about Russia sanctions. “With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” she said.

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Haley has had the advantage of physical distance from President Trump. She has also let anyone who will listen know that she stands up to her boss. In an op-ed for The Post this month, Haley disclaimed any role in the anonymous op-ed piece in the New York Times. “If I disagree with something and believe it is important enough to raise with the president, I do it. And he listens. Sometimes he changes course, sometimes he doesn’t.” An effective humble-brag.

Moreover, while Trump has embraced dictators, fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, praised North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and shredded the United States’s image as defender of a free press and other civil liberties, she has rhetorically whacked America’s enemies and carried the banner for international human rights. She has endeared herself to Israel and hence to the Christian conservatives in the GOP with her take-no-prisoners defense of Israel. You don’t have to agree with her stances or approve of her participation in an administration so antagonistic toward democratic values to see that Haley has been politically astute.

She might start planning ahead just in case Republicans come knocking on her door looking for a primary challenge to Trump in 2020 (if he’s still in office). In the near term, she should get ready to quit. She has maneuvered for nearly two years with hardly a political scratch, outlasting numerous Cabinet officials. Why take chances by hanging around until things really implode? Moreover, she’ll need to put time and distance between her tenure in the administration and any presidential run.

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In some ways, she is the ideal foil for Trump. Trumpists cannot accuse her of being a #NeverTrump heretic, while anti-Trump voices would concede that she did a solid job at the U.N. and didn’t provide cover for Trump’s egregious conduct. Trump cannot very well criticize her personally or ding her performance, which he has regularly praised. Trumpists are some of her biggest fans. She can, however, signal that she wants to turn the page on Trumpism, returning to Republicans’ free trade, pro-immigration, saner traditions.

Once disentangled from the administration, she can ramp up criticisms that she made less aggressively in office. Haley, you may recall, emailed her staff last year after the white-supremacist violence in Charlottesville: “We must denounce them at every turn, and make them feel like they are on an island and isolate them the same way they wish to isolate others.” She also let it be known in an interview with CNN that she had a “personal conversation” with Trump about his comments about Charlottesville, saying she would “leave it at that.” (Another instance where she let everyone know she had chewed out Trump without chewing him out in public.) Simply by being a woman and daughter of immigrants from India, she signals an end to the GOP’s image as the party of white male grievance.

It’s impossible to tell whether a primary run would succeed (although she is arguably the best-credentialed GOP woman out there). Remember, aside from times when the incumbent president has decided not to run (e.g., Lyndon Johnson in 1968), no primary challenge of an incumbent has succeeded. Nevertheless, all political rules are up for grabs these days. It’s evident that Haley is one of the few people who could pull it off — appealing to Republicans who voted for Trump but are tired of him, trying to recapture ex-Republicans, win independents and most of all narrow the gender gap that threatens to devour her party. (Oh, and she would be the favorite-daughter candidate in the critical early South Carolina primary.)

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Moreover, if Trump doesn’t run for whatever reason in 2020, she’s much better positioned than the sycophantic vice president, Mike Pence, to run for president. There’s no comparing the two when it comes to political skill, likability or capacity to establish distance from Trump.