Romney tipped for secretary of state
Trump to meet with former candidate who was one of his biggest campaign critics
President- elect Donald Trump plans to meet tomorrow with Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and fierce Trump critic, and may discuss whether he should be a candidate for secretary of state, a source familiar with the plans said.
The news came as a senior Trump official said the President- elect had offered retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn the position of White House national security adviser.
Trump already has a lengthy list of potential candidates for the post of secretary of state, the top United States diplomat. They include former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for- mer US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, US Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who met Trump yesterday.
Trump, a former reality TV star, has shown a flair for the dramatic in his deliberations over his Cabinet, saying only he knows who “the finalists” are.
Corker told CNN on Thursday that he was “in the mix” for the position but that Trump might pick someone who was closer to him during the presidential campaign. He met yesterday in Washington with VicePresident- elect Mike Pence.
Trump’s expected meeting with Romney amounts to an olive branch of sorts to one of his sharpest critics. Romney, who in a speech in March called Trump “a phony, a fraud”, urged Republicans to vote for anyone but the New York real estate magnate while the party was picking its presidential nominee.
Trump, in turn, used harsh rhetoric at times during his campaign to dismiss Romney as a failure who blew a chance in 2012 to defeat Democratic President Barack Obama, whom Trump felt was a weak opponent.
The source told Reuters that a broad discussion was expected during the meeting and that discussion about the secretary of state position was possible. The source had said earlier his understanding was that the meeting would occur on Monday.
Asked about the meeting, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway suggested it was still being arranged. “We’re working on it,” she said.
“I think it’s good that the President- elect i s meeting with people like Mr Romney,” Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, one of Trump’s closest confidants and a potential nominee for defence secretary, told reporters at Manhattan’s Trump Tower.
Sessions sounded far from certain Romney would be offered a job.
“There are a lot of talented people that he [ Trump] needs good relation- ships with. And I think Mr Romney would be quite capable of doing a number of things. But he will be one of those, I am sure, that’s reviewed. Donald Trump will make that decision,” Sessions said.
When Romney, a former Massachusetts Governor, opted out of running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, people close to him suggested that serving as secretary of state might be appealing to him if a Republican won the presidency.
A steady stream of potential Trump Administration hires made their way through the lobby of Trump Tower to meet with either Trump or officials close to him.
All indicated a willingness to serve, such as Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who is chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. He is a potential treasury secretary in the Trump Administration.
“I stand ready to help the President in any capacity possible. I’ve got a great position in public policy today, if he wants to talk to me obviously, about serving somewhere else, we’ll look at serving somewhere else,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, asked if Flynn i s expected to accept the position of national security adviser, a person familiar with the offer replied: “When the President of the United States asks you to serve, there i s only one answer.”
Flynn, a former head of the Defence Intelligence Agency, advised Trump during the campaign on national security i ssues and often served as an introductory speaker at campaign rallies.