'I sat there watching in shock': Trump admin vet recalls ex-president praising Nikki Haley

So many who worked in the Trump White House learned they were axed through tweet or television.

Just ask Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who was replaced by Mike Pompeo via tweet. Or FBI Director James Comey finding out he was a civilian when watching the news while he was set to address Los Angeles FBI staffers.

Not Nikki Haley.

"She's probably the only person that I can think of in the administration that got a laudatory farewell in the Oval Office," recalled former Homeland Security Adviser to Mike Pence, Olivia Troye, while being interviewed amongst other White House alums on the podcast "Press Advance" hosted by Johanna Maska. "I've never forgotten that moment."

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On Oct. 9, 2018, Trump sat in the Oval Office and showered his U.N. Ambassador with praise, telling her at the time: "Thank you, Nikki. I’m so proud of you."

And the then-ambassador offered a fulsome response.

"It’s been an honor of a lifetime," she said. "And I will say this: For all of you that are going to ask about 2020; no, I’m not running for 2020. I can promise you what I’ll be doing is campaigning for this one.

"So, I look forward to supporting the President in the next election."

This pleased Trump.

"That’s so good. Thank you, Nikki."

For Troye, the sight of seeing the president pull out all the pomp for Haley stuck.

"Everyone's forgotten that one, and I sat there watching in shock. Because [Haley] did call him out. I had tremendous respect for her at the time.

"I worked with her a lot because at the time I had the U.N. portfolio for Pence. And I remember watching that moment with disbelief. Like 'Wow! He's just exacting praise and she's sitting here yucking it up in the Oval.""

The cushy treatment is something that Troye can't get past.

"She got a grand farewell, where most people it was a tweet firing them or a disparaging remark."

"I think that speaks to something there."