Nikki Haley takes center stage during Trump's UN debut

As President Trump wrapped up his final day at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on Thursday, it was U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley — not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — who addressed the White House press corps for an overview of the week's events and fielded questions on everything from North Korea to Iran.

Her appearance was just the latest instance in which the nation's chief diplomat ceded the spotlight to Haley, who has emerged as the public face of the Trump administration's foreign policy amid a series of international crises.

With President Trump and key Cabinet members gathered on Haley's home turf at the U.N. headquarters this week, the former South Carolina governor was bound to play a prominent role in the public representation of Trump's agenda.

But Haley took on more this week than her basic responsibility as the administration's liaison to the U.N. required her to do. She also embarked on a media tour the morning after Trump's address to the General Assembly to defend his most controversial statements about North Korea, sat beside and introduced Trump at his first event of the week and bookended the trip with wide-ranging press conferences.

Tillerson, on the other hand, took questions from journalists Wednesday evening on Iran but otherwise made few waves of his own at the summit, heightening speculation that Haley could not only eclipse his public profile, but one day ascend to his job.