What the commentators said
“Let’s dispense with a couple of red herrings,” said Rupert Cornwell in The Independent. “Contrary to many reports, this hasn’t been an especially chaotic transition.” While some of Trump’s procedures have certainly been unorthodox, he’s well ahead of where Bill Clinton was at this stage: Clinton “didn’t manage to nominate his (third) choice of attorney general until three weeks after his inauguration”. Nor is it especially shocking that Trump’s children and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, might play some role in the White House. They seem more “presidential” than him, and it wouldn’t be the first time a US leader relied on family advice.
Trump is grappling with “a task that even he and some of his closest advisers had thought he would never have to face”, said Toby Harnden in The Sunday Times. He appears to be approaching it in a similar way to The Apprentice, the reality TV show he used to host. Potential appointees are referred to as “finalists”. “Names are floated, then withdrawn, as if to build up the drama before the finale.” The three most important members of Trump’s team, said David Smith in The Guardian, look set to be Priebus, Bannon and Kushner. They’re all very different, which is sure to lead to some creative tensions, to say the least. But that won’t bother Trump. In the words of one insider, the president-elect “likes to manage with concentric circles of chaos… He likes the tension between the different sectors of influence.”
One significant decision still being argued over is who should serve as Trump’s secretary of state, said Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post. Some, alarmingly, are pushing for the post to go to Rudy Giuliani, who was good as mayor of New York after 9/11 but who now comes across as a ranting reactionary. Let’s hope Trump instead picks Mitt Romney, with whom he held a meeting this week. The former Republican presidential candidate is calm, articulate and well informed, not to mention fluent in French – all things Trump is not. He also has a sound grasp of international politics. It was Romney, remember, who, during his final debate with President Obama in 2012, presciently pointed to Russia as the US’S greatest geopolitical foe.