President-elect Donald Trump this weekend moved his operation to fill
top administration posts and talk with Republican party elders to his
private New Jersey golf club, meeting with arch-critic Mitt Romney, who
purportedly is being considered for secretary of state.
Trump, who has conducted most of the discussion --
and made a couple of Cabinet-level picks -- from Trump Tower in
Manhattan, is scheduled to meet Sunday with New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, two leading
supporters. He’s also scheduled to meet with Kansas Secretary of State
Kris Kobach.
A Kobach spokeswoman told The Associated Press on
Saturday that Kobach was on his way to New Jersey but she did not
confirm details of the planned meeting Sunday. Kobach served as an
adviser to the Trump campaign on immigration issues and has a background
in designing laws cracking down people who are here illegally.
Romney, a former GOP presidential nominee, said the
90-minute meeting at Trump’s private club in Bedminster, N.J., was a
"far-reaching conversation." He did not respond to questions about
whether he would consider joining the administration.
Trump walked Romney out at the end of the meeting and said, "It went great."
The sit-down came after an acrimonious election year.
Romney was a harsh critic of Trump, calling him a "con man." Trump
called Romney a "choke artist" because of his loss to President Barack
Obama. Trump and Romney have been trying to mend fences since then.
Earlier Saturday, Trump met with former D.C. public
schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, possibly about the secretary of
education post, and took to Twitter.
On Twitter, Trump rushed to the defense of Mike
Pence, after "Hamilton" actor Brandon Victor Dixon challenged the
incoming vice president from the Broadway stage after the show Friday
night.
"Apologize!" Trump tweeted to the actor. "Our
wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater
by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This should not happen!"
Dixon tweeted back: "Conversation is not harassment sir. And I appreciate (at) Mike -- Pence for stopping to listen."
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, it was announced that Trump had agreed to a
$25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University,
his former school for real estate investors. The lawsuits alleged the
school misled students and failed to deliver on its promises in programs
that cost up to $35,000.
Trump has denied the allegations and had said
repeatedly he would not settle. New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman, who announced the settlement, called it "a stunning
reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims
of his fraudulent university."
Trump tweeted to his 15 million followers Saturday that he settled only so that he could better focus on leading the U.S.
Trump is still weighing a range of candidates for leading national security posts.
Other contenders for secretary of state are said to
be Giuliani, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, Tennessee Sen. Bob
Corker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who met with Trump on
Thursday.
Also on Friday, Trump picked Alabama Sen. Jeff
Sessions for attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the
CIA, signaling 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 counterterror 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 do not denounce
violence carried out in the name of Islam.
Pompeo's nomination to lead the CIA also opens the
prospect of the U.S. resuming torture of detainees. Trump has backed
harsh interrogation techniques that President Barack Obama and Congress
have banned, saying the U.S. "should go tougher than waterboarding,"
which simulates drowning. In 2014, Pompeo criticized Obama for "ending
our interrogation program" and said intelligence officials "are not
torturers, they are patriots."
Asked Saturday whether more anymore announcements would be made in the coming hours, Trump said, “We'll see, could happen."
Sessions and Pompeo would both require Senate confirmation; Flynn would not.
However, potential roadblocks exist, particularly for
Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trump and one of the chamber's
most conservative members.
His last Senate confirmation hearing, in 1986 for a
federal judgeship, was derailed over allegations that he made racist
comments, including calling a black assistant U.S. attorney "boy" in
conversation. Sessions denied the accusation, but withdrew from
consideration.