Amid the tweets, Trump meets Mitt
President-elect is racing to fill senior positions
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — President-elect Donald Trump is filling his Twitter feed like the campaigner of old even while racing to fill senior positions in his administration.
Trump met Saturday with one of his sharpest Republican critics, 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, at Trump’s golf club in New Jersey.
On Sunday he was to meet with two leading supporters, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
During the campaign, Romney called Trump a “con man” and a “fraud,” while Trump repeatedly called Romney a “loser.”
But first came a tweet storm. The president-elect rushed to the defence of Mike Pence on Saturday after Broadway actor Brandon Victor Dixon challenged the incoming vice-president from the stage after the a performance of Hamilton on Friday night.
“Apologize!” Trump tweeted to the actor. “Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theatre by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This should not happen!”
Dixon tweeted back: “Conversation is not harassment sir.”
Trump also bragged on Twitter about agreeing to settle a trio of lawsuits against Trump University, claiming: “The ONLY bad thing about winning the presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!”
On Friday, Trump picked Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, signalling a sharp rightward shift in U.S. security policy as he begins to form his Cabinet.
Trump also named retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. A former military intelligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama administration of being too soft on terrorism and has cast Islam as a “political ideology” and driver of extremism.
The selections form the first outlines of Trump’s cabinet and national security teams. Given his lack of governing experience and vague policy proposals during the campaign, his selection of advisers is being scrutinized both in the U.S. and abroad.
Trump’s initial decisions suggest a more aggressive military involvement in counter-terror strategy and a greater emphasis on Islam’s role in stoking extremism.
Sessions, who is best known for his hardline immigration views, has questioned whether terrorist suspects should benefit from the rights available in U.S. courts.
Pompeo has said Muslim leaders are “potentially complicit” in attacks if they don’t denounce violence carried out in the name of Islam.
Trump is still weighing a range of candidates for other leading national security posts.
Possibilities for secretary of state are said to include Giuliani, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Most of Trump’s nominees are expected to be confirmed relatively easily, given the Republican majority in the Senate. However, potential roadblocks exist, particularly for Sessions.
His last Senate confirmation hearing in 1986, for a federal judgeship, was derailed over allegations he made racist comments, including calling a black assistant U.S. attorney “boy” in conversation. Sessions denied the accusation, but withdrew from consideration.