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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — On a Friday in August, the president of the United States casually said at a televised news briefing that his administration could not rule out a “military option” to respond to the crisis in Venezuela. A look of bewilderment washed over the face of the woman standing next to him: Nikki R. Haley, President Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations. She knit her brows, looked at him briefly, looked down at her hands. Twitter reacted immediately. “Nikki Haley’s face,” wrote one. “We are all Nikki Haley right now,” wrote another. “Hey, she accepted the job,” wrote a third. That moment embodied the challenge that confronts Ms. Haley in her role as the United States ambassador. She represents Mr. Trump to the world. But she has also shown herself to be an ambitious politician, quick to voice her own opinions on the big policy issues that are high on her agenda like Iran and North Korea. And she has cast herself as someone who can sway her mercurial boss on everything from Russia sanctions to refugee resettlement to the value of the United Nations itself. A crucial test of her influence on him will come this week during Mr. Trump’s maiden visit to the United Nations, the organization he has repeatedly pilloried and whose very reason for being — international cooperation — he has dismissed with his promise of “only America first.” Ms. Haley predicted with confidence at a White House news conference on Friday that Mr. Trump would make “quite an impact” at the... Link to the full article to read more