After the election, Romney said on Twitter he wished Trump the best. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general nominee, told reporters Thursday. It would likely calm the nerves of American allies around the globe, who might prefer Romney to more hardline candidates whose names have been mentioned, such as John Bolton or Rudy Giuliani.
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Trump last week replaced Christie, the head of his transition team, with Vice President-elect Mike Pence and ousted several other transition members.
The two men are apparently to talk about governing moving forward and potentially a role for Romney in Trump’s Cabinet, including the secretary of state position, according to various news reports.
Asked about the meeting, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway suggested it was still being arranged. “Donald Trump will make that decision”, Sessions said.
Donald Trump has had high-level Republicans parading through Trump Tower throughout Thursday morning. Romney came out staunchly against Trump during the election cycle, but now the former MA governor could reportedly land a cabinet position in the new administration.
He later warned that the president-elect’s controversial campaign trail rhetoric could lead to “trickle-down racism”.
Romney made no secret of his disdain for Trump throughout the 2016 campaign.
He told a University of Utah audience then that “dishonesty is Donald Trump’s hallmark”. Ted Cruz who initially opposed Trump but is now “eager and committed” to work with him.
“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. The guessing is that he will either be considered for secretary of state or secretary of the treasury.
But Mr Romney is said to feel compelled by patriotic duty to answer Mr Trump’s call – even if he stops short of agreeing to join the cabinet should Mr Trump extend an offer.
“I think it’s good that the president-elect is meeting with people like Romney”.
This is, of course, the whole “Team of Rivals” concept that garnered President Barack Obama so much good press in his own transition period back in late 2008. There are certain people, who are a lot older than me, who are very, very qualified for these jobs, and so there is what I would call a drafting process and a rigorous review of these people. After all, the two powerhouse Republicans haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye throughout the 2016 presidential election.
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Trump also met Thursday afternoon in NY with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first foreign head of state Trump met with in person since becoming president-elect.
