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US PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump is considering Mitt Romney as secretary of state, in what would be a major olive branch to mainstream Republicans who opposed the tycoon’s candidacy.
CNN and NBC said Trump would meet over the weekend with Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who was the Republicans’ unsuccessful 2012 White House candidate against President Barack Obama.
NBC said that Trump was considering Romney as secretary of state, which would put a figure with more orthodox Republican views in charge of US foreign policy.
Senator Jeff Sessions, an arch-conservative Republican from Alabama who is one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, said he expected the incoming president to consider the “capable” Romney for some position.
“I think it’s good that the president-elect is meeting with people like Romney. There are a lot of talented people that he needs good relationships with,” said Sessions, himself a top contender for a cabinet post.
“And I think Mr Romney would be quite capable of doing a number of things,” Sessions told reporters after meeting the president-elect at his Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Romney was one of the staunchest Republican opponents of Trump’s candidacy during the party’s primaries, describing the businessman as vulgar, unprincipled and threatening to US values.
Romney in particular chastised Trump for proposing a ban on all foreign Muslims entering the United States.
In March, Romney said that:
Trump’s bombast is already alarming our allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies.
He also described him as a “phony, a fraud”.
Russia
Romney has a more traditional Republican scepticism of Russia, which he called the top geopolitical threat to the United States during the 2012 election.
In a striking departure for a Republican, Trump has voiced hope for working with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spoken warmly of the businessman-turned-world leader.
Media reports have speculated on a wide range of names to be secretary of state including South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, another Republican who was initially lukewarm to Trump.
An Indian American, Haley would inject diversity into the cabinet after a divisive election in which Trump was outspoken in his criticism of immigration.
Other names floated for secretary of state include Rudy Giuliani, the combative former New York mayor and staunch Trump defender who would likely face scrutiny over a slew of business dealings, and hawkish former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.
Abe meeting
Separately, photos of Trump’s landmark first talks with a foreign leader show his daughter Ivanka was present, underscoring the family’s influence as he readies to take power.
In the meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the mogul’s Trump Plaza residence, Ivanka was seen seated as the group conversed in the opulent reception room.
Media were shut out of the gathering in Manhattan, but images released by the Japanese government also showed Ivanka and her husband, real estate developer and publisher Jared Kushner, standing and chatting with Abe.
Ivanka and Kushner, both 35, have emerged as key advisers to Trump, who shocked the world by beating Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 8 November election.
World leaders have scrambled to establish ties with Trump but Abe was the first to see him in person since the vote which has provoked anxiety over US foreign policy and its commitment to security in Asia.
Abe told reporters afterwards that the encounter convinced him the US president-elect was someone “in whom I can have great confidence”.
“We were able to have a very candid talk over a substantial amount of time. We held it in a very warm atmosphere,” he said.
Without confidence between the two nations, our alliance would never function in the future.
Also seen standing in one of the photos, amidst the gilt and chandeliers of Trump’s skyscraper, was former general Michael Flynn, who has reportedly been offered the post of national security adviser.
- © AFP, 2016 with reporting from Daragh Brophy
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Time to brown the nose good and well..
That sort of magnanimous approach is important in a leader, I doubt he will give him a position but it is a good show of unity heading into power, particularly as the Democrats tear themselves asunder.
Trump will do anything to win, he will insult you, harass you and push you out of the way. Once he wins, he buries the hatchet. He is totally incapable of hate and void of vindictiveness. Revenge is a tool to get there, once there, its forgotten. This trait will amaze his critics who themselves are spiteful and vindictive. It will do him a lot of good in his term of office. He won’t prosecute |Hillary, he does not have the heart for it. He’ll be grand. Wait and see
I suspected there is going to be quiet a big difference between what a President Trump does and what Candidate Trump said. The part that interests me the most, is what is going to happen to this fabled wall.
@The Edge: I reckon, the wall will go through the environmental assessment process and pass. It will start at both ends and move inwards. It will be a wall in the places of easy access and probable by a fence on the higher ground. A problem will be getting it passed the Strategic Environmental Assessment stage. Will they know the entire plan?
@The Edge: With a breitbart chairman as chief advisor? I think they’ll be exactly the same.
@Val Martin: I doubt if there will be any problems with Strategic Environmental Assessments when the new POTUS shuts down te crooked EPA.
If Romney takes that job it’s HE who’s a phoney with no backbone.
Those who supported Trump took him seriously but not literally.
Those who opposed Trump took him literally but not seriously.
Quoted from Irish Times, quoting a US commentator.
@Micheal OLainn:
Your up early…oh yeah it’s Friday don’t forget your Doppa or your Topi!
Trump may be Machiavellian but he’s a winner. He has defeated the PC brigade.
Never mind Romney, can President Elect Trump deal with this pair of tulips ?
“Merkel and Obama: Internet ‘Disruptive’ Force that Has to Be ‘Contained, Managed, and Steered’ by Government” They are afraid of us.
Some lavish surroundings there at Trump tower. Probably the first President in history to to be “downgrading” in moving into the White House.
Classy, like a $10,000 a night hooker
Clinton’s lead in the popular vote keeps on growing.
She’s up to 1.5 million votes ahead of Trump as the counting still continues.
That’s over 1% in lead today. 46.9% for Trump to 48% for Clinton.
Gore beat Bush in 2000 by much less in popular vote terms.
A very strange system indeed.
@Ciaran O’Mara: When will the whinging stop ? Me granny didn’t have a wake this long
@MackPilon: Not whinging. Just pointing out that it’s a bit weird. Trump has won fair and square.
Rules are rules. The Electoral College is the system.
@Rosa Parks: The Founding Fathers put systems in place to prevent ‘big government’ from stamping on the people of the smaller states, it would take a whole day to explain it but their original plan has already been weakened and attempts are being made by ‘progressives’ to chip away further. The system is about the people ,not about party or personalities , it’s in the name ‘The United States of America ‘
Both sides knew the rules, no point crying foul now
Romney on Trump :
“But you say, ‘Wait wait wait,’ isn’t he a huge business success? Doesn’t he know what he’s talking about? No he isn’t. And know he doesn’t. His bankruptcies have crushed small businesses and the men and women who worked for them. He inherited his business, he didn’t create it. And what ever happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? And then there’s Trump Magazine and Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks and Trump Mortgage. A business genius he is not.”
“Donald Trump tells us that he is very, very smart. I’m afraid that when it comes to foreign policy he is very, very not smart.”
“This is an individual who mocked a disabled reporter, who attributed a reporter’s questions to her menstrual cycle, who mocked a brilliant rival who happened to be a woman due to her appearance, who bragged about his marital affairs, and who laces his public speeches with vulgarity.”
“I predict that there are more bombshells in his tax returns. I predict that he doesn’t give much if anything to the disabled and to our veterans. I predict that he told The New York Times that his immigration talk is just that: talk. … If I’m right (that he won’t release either), you will have all the proof you need to know that Donald Trump is, indeed, a phony.”
“Here’s what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”
Source : CNN
#draintheswamp
@Francis Mc Carthy:
CNN the News Broadcaster that blamed the local French community for the Nice atrocity…credibility zero!
@Warthog:
“CNN the News Broadcaster that blamed the local French community for the Nice atrocity…credibility zero!” – says one of the all time biggest spoofers on the journal.ie .
Are you saying that Romney didn’t say any of this?
Good lad,Warts
Cmon Mitt, love to see you on board.
Onboard his spacecraft more like.
The question is where?
have your say