Trump battles back against charges of transition tumult
Published 6:46 am Thursday, November 17, 2016
<span class="RACopyBody">NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump and his team are battling back against charges of chaos and infighting as they race to set up an administration. The incoming Republican administration got an unlikely boost from outgoing Vice President Joe Biden, who said "no administration is ready on Day One."</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump stayed out of the public eye Wednesday, meeting with a stream of visitors at his New York skyscraper. But he took to Twitter to dispute reports of internal tension, declaring the transition operation was proceeding "so smoothly."</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump’s team said Wednesday night that it would be rolling out teams to interact with federal agencies during the transition, starting with national security advisers who would work with officials at the State, Justice, Defense and other national security departments.</span>
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<span class="RACopyBody">They also said transition and administration officials would be required to sever lobbying ties and pledge that they will not lobby the government for five years after departing the Trump administration.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump’s team was essentially starting its transition planning from scratch after scrapping much of the preliminary work New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie conducted during the campaign. After winning the election, Trump demoted Christie and put Vice President-elect Mike Pence in charge.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">The result has been a series of new additions to the transition team and several departures, mainly among those aligned with Christie.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Pence met Wednesday with Biden at the Naval Observatory, the vice presidential residence in leafy northwest Washington, D.C. Biden expressed confidence that by Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, "everything will be in good hands."</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump planned to meet Thursday in New York with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his first get-together with a world leader as president-elect. The State Department has said it had yet to hear from Trump’s transition team, raising the prospect of the Republican holding the meeting without any input from career diplomats with deep experience dealing with Japan.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump also plans to meet Thursday with an assortment of GOP officials, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling.</span>
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<span class="RACopyBody">Trump aides and allies suggested some of the commotion within the transition team was to be expected given the enormous task at hand.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">"The beginning of any transition like this has turmoil because it’s just the nature of the process," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said as he left Trump’s transition headquarters in Washington. He said the picture of Trump’s administration would become clearer over the next two or three weeks.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Former Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who has informally advised members of Trump’s national security team, blamed Trump’s detractors for the reports of drama.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">"When you’re doing a transition that is trying to push the kind of change that Mr. Trump wants to be doing, it’s going to be even harder," Hoekstra, a former House Intelligence Committee chairman, said.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">But others close to the transition process described advisers "fighting for power." Trump has long stoked internal rivalries among his staff — both in his businesses and his campaign — and has created ambiguity in his transition about who has authority to make key decisions.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son, raised expectations of imminent progress Wednesday, telling reporters in the morning that appointments were "likely" to come during the day. Then, other Trump aides suggested a slower pace.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">"We’re not going to rush to put names forward until we’re absolutely sure," Trump spokesman Jason Miller said hours later. "We’re going to make sure that they’re people we’re confident will pass confirmation and we think can implement the president-elect’s vision."</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump’s team noted that President Barack Obama waited until a few weeks after the 2008 election to announce many of his Cabinet appointments.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump appeared to be weighing an eclectic mix of individuals for top Cabinet posts, including longtime loyalists, former rivals and even a Democrat. Transition officials said Trump met Wednesday with Eva Moskowitz, a former New York councilwoman and charter school founder who is being considered for education secretary.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Other meetings included Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., a potential pick for Health and Human Services, Ray Washburne, a Dallas businessman and top GOP fundraiser in the mix for Commerce secretary, and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan. New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson were also spotted near the lobby’s gilded elevators during the day.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who spent two hours at Trump Tower on Wednesday, has been angling for secretary of state, though his consulting work for foreign governments has emerged as a potential roadblock. Trump is also said to be seriously considering John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, for the top diplomatic job.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who tangled ferociously with Trump during the Republican primary but ultimately endorsed the businessman, could get a top job such as attorney general. An official said, however, he is not viewed as a top contender. The official, like others, wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the transition talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.</span>
<span class="RACopyBody">Trump aides have released few details about the president-elect’s schedule or phone calls since the election. They tried to play catch-up Wednesday, releasing a list of 29 world leaders who have spoken with Trump or Pence in recent days. Most of the calls had previously only been confirmed by those leaders’ governments.</span>
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