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| © AFP/Getty Images United States ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Myanmar at UN Headquarters in New York on August 28, 2018. (Photo by DOMINICK REUTER / AFP) |
By Erin Kelly, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said Wednesday that world leaders who laughed during President Donald Trump's speech to the United Nations did so because "they loved how honest he is."
Trump began his speech to the UN on Monday by saying his administration "has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country."
When the comment drew laughter from the crowd of diplomats, Trump said: "I didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay."
Haley said on Fox News that the press was wrong to portray the laughter as disrespectful to the president.
"They loved how honest he is," Haley said on the Fox and Friends show. "It’s not diplomatic and they find it funny."
She said diplomats were "falling over themselves" to get a picture with Trump and tell him "how great his speech was."
"They love that he’s honest with them and they’ve never seen anything like it, so there’s respect there," she said. "I saw that the media was trying to make it something disrespectful. That’s not what it was. They love to be with him."
Trump seemed to be taken aback by the laughter at the time, but he later told reporters that he was trying to get a laugh with his opening lines.
"Oh it was great, well, that was meant to get some laughter, so it was great," he said.
Trump's remarks and the crowd's laughter drew ridicule on Twitter, with even Sputnik, Russia's state-owned media outlet, joining in.
"UN audience burst into laughter @realDonaldTrump during his address," the Sputnik tweet said.
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