President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to push back against news coverage describing a chaotic transition to power, saying the process of selecting Cabinet secretaries and working with the Obama administration “is going so smoothly.’’
Trump took particular aim at a favorite target, the New York Times, which reported Wednesday that the transition has been marked by firings and infighting, and that U.S. allies were having trouble reaching Trump at New York’s Trump Tower as he plans his government.
In his tweets, Trump falsely implies the Times reported that he had not spoken with foreign leaders and never points out exactly what the Times had in error.
The Times did report that American allies were “blindly dialing in to Trump Tower” in an attempt to reach the president-elect and that key members of the transition team had been fired.
The paper reported that even key U.S. allies such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister Theresa May had been patched through to Trump “with little warning,” citing a Western diplomat.
The Washington Post also reported Wednesday about turbulence in Trump’s transition. But Peter Hoekstra, a Republican former congressman from Michigan, defended Trump in an interview Wednesday, saying the president-elect’s team has “a monumental job to do and a short time to do it.”
“I’m just watching all the sniping coming in. They’re not doing this right. They’re not doing that right,’’ said Hoekstra, a former House Intelligence Committee chairman who is reportedly under consideration for CIA director. “This is what any transition team would do. You start with the people who brought you. I think the Trump team is going to expand its outreach, absolutely. But they’re going to do it in a methodical way.’’
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Trump’s efforts to work more closely with Russian President Vladi*mir Putin amounted to “complicity in [the] butchery of the Syrian people” and “an unacceptable price for a great nation.”
Trump met Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who replaced Christie at the head of the transition Friday, to discuss Cabinet and White House personnel choices. Little to no information was released by the transition office, leaving a clutch of reporters gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower to hustle after team members passing between the front doors and the elevators.
Trump posted a message Tuesday night on Twitter saying that a “very organized process [is] taking place” as he decides on Cabinet and other positions. “I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”
As he had during the campaign, Trump appeared to be increasingly uncomfortable with outsiders and suspicious of those considered part of what one insider called the *“bicoastal elite,” who are perceived as trying to “insinuate” themselves into positions of power.
Increasingly, among the shards are more mainline Republicans in the national security field. In an angry Twitter post Tuesday, Eliot A. Cohen, a leading voice of opposition to Trump during the campaign who had advised those interested in administration jobs to take them, abruptly changed his mind, saying the transition “will be ugly.”
After responding to a transition insider seeking names of possible appointees, Cohen said, he received what he described as an “unhinged” email from the same person saying “YOU LOST” and accusing Trump critics of trying to infiltrate the administration’s ranks.
“It became clear to me that they view jobs as lollipops, things you give out to good boys and girls, instead of the sense that actually what you’re trying to do is recruit the best possible talent to fill the most important, demanding, *lowest-paying executive jobs in the world,” Cohen said.
Rogers’s departure** coincided with word from Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose possible selection as secretary of state comforted more mainline Republicans, that he was unlikely to be chosen. “Has my name been in the mix? I’m pretty sure, yeah. Have I been having intimate conversations? No,” Corker said in an interview. “Do I understand that it’s likely that people who’ve been involved in the center of this for some time, and have been surrogating on television, are likely front-runners? I would say that’s likely, yes.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...p-table-main_lede-desktop-only:homepage/story
(more at link)
Trump took particular aim at a favorite target, the New York Times, which reported Wednesday that the transition has been marked by firings and infighting, and that U.S. allies were having trouble reaching Trump at New York’s Trump Tower as he plans his government.
In his tweets, Trump falsely implies the Times reported that he had not spoken with foreign leaders and never points out exactly what the Times had in error.
The Times did report that American allies were “blindly dialing in to Trump Tower” in an attempt to reach the president-elect and that key members of the transition team had been fired.
The paper reported that even key U.S. allies such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister Theresa May had been patched through to Trump “with little warning,” citing a Western diplomat.
The Washington Post also reported Wednesday about turbulence in Trump’s transition. But Peter Hoekstra, a Republican former congressman from Michigan, defended Trump in an interview Wednesday, saying the president-elect’s team has “a monumental job to do and a short time to do it.”
“I’m just watching all the sniping coming in. They’re not doing this right. They’re not doing that right,’’ said Hoekstra, a former House Intelligence Committee chairman who is reportedly under consideration for CIA director. “This is what any transition team would do. You start with the people who brought you. I think the Trump team is going to expand its outreach, absolutely. But they’re going to do it in a methodical way.’’
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Trump’s efforts to work more closely with Russian President Vladi*mir Putin amounted to “complicity in [the] butchery of the Syrian people” and “an unacceptable price for a great nation.”
Trump met Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who replaced Christie at the head of the transition Friday, to discuss Cabinet and White House personnel choices. Little to no information was released by the transition office, leaving a clutch of reporters gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower to hustle after team members passing between the front doors and the elevators.
Trump posted a message Tuesday night on Twitter saying that a “very organized process [is] taking place” as he decides on Cabinet and other positions. “I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”
As he had during the campaign, Trump appeared to be increasingly uncomfortable with outsiders and suspicious of those considered part of what one insider called the *“bicoastal elite,” who are perceived as trying to “insinuate” themselves into positions of power.
Increasingly, among the shards are more mainline Republicans in the national security field. In an angry Twitter post Tuesday, Eliot A. Cohen, a leading voice of opposition to Trump during the campaign who had advised those interested in administration jobs to take them, abruptly changed his mind, saying the transition “will be ugly.”
After responding to a transition insider seeking names of possible appointees, Cohen said, he received what he described as an “unhinged” email from the same person saying “YOU LOST” and accusing Trump critics of trying to infiltrate the administration’s ranks.
“It became clear to me that they view jobs as lollipops, things you give out to good boys and girls, instead of the sense that actually what you’re trying to do is recruit the best possible talent to fill the most important, demanding, *lowest-paying executive jobs in the world,” Cohen said.
Rogers’s departure** coincided with word from Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose possible selection as secretary of state comforted more mainline Republicans, that he was unlikely to be chosen. “Has my name been in the mix? I’m pretty sure, yeah. Have I been having intimate conversations? No,” Corker said in an interview. “Do I understand that it’s likely that people who’ve been involved in the center of this for some time, and have been surrogating on television, are likely front-runners? I would say that’s likely, yes.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...p-table-main_lede-desktop-only:homepage/story
(more at link)
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