WASHINGTON — When US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley took to the podium at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Wednesday to discuss US promotion of human rights, there was no nod to the cognitive dissonance when she proclaimed it her duty as an American to advocate for traumatized women and children she had met at refugee camps abroad.

“I have traveled to refugee camps in Ethiopia, Congo, Turkey and Jordan,” Haley said. “I have met with mothers that have been scarred by trauma. I have seen battered, aimless children lost to ignorance and extremism. … As long as we have a voice, we must use it to advocate for these mothers and children. … I will use my voice … because I am an American. And America can no more abandon the cause of human rights than abandon itself."

In the first public speech by a US foreign policy principal since President Donald Trump sent shock waves through Washington at his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, Haley gave a stirring call for advocacy to alleviate the suffering of refugee women and children. But it was totally at odds with many Trump administration policies on refugees and migrants, most notably the controversial administration decision to separate the children of migrant families that was ordered halted last month after more than 3,000 children had been taken away from their parents.

Haley's speech was just the latest example of a growing chasm between the public stances of top administration officials such as Haley, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and US intelligence chiefs, and the policy preferences and pronouncements made by Trump himself. The result has been extended uncertainty for both US government officials themselves, as well as American allies and adversaries, on what the US policy going forward is on a range of issues, from Syria to how to “push back” on Iran in the region to possible US cooperation with Russia in the fight against terrorism and the so-called Islamic State.