US president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday moved swiftly to diversify his Cabinet and try to heal lingering rifts in the Republican Party, reaching out to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Betsy DeVos, a prominent Republican fundraiser, both of whom opposed him during the campaign, as well as Ben Carson, who challenged Trump for the Republican nomination.
Haley, who was named ambassador to the UN, and DeVos, who was named secretary of education would be the first women in Trump’s Cabinet.
Carson, whose selection as secretary of housing and urban development is expected to be announced today, would be the first black American.
Photo: AP
However, none of these choices suggest a president-elect who is reaching beyond reliably conservative precincts to fill his administration.
Haley, 44, an Indian American who is a rising star in Republican politics, pushed for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina State House after the church shooting in Charleston in June last year. During the Republican primary, she was a frequent and vocal critic of Trump and supported US Senator Marco Rubio.
DeVos, 58, is one of the nation’s most avid supporters of school choice, a subject she and Trump discussed last week at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey. However, DeVos also sharply criticized him during the campaign and spent much of the year raising money for other Republicans on the ballot.
Photo: EPA
On Wednesday, Trump rolled out their appointments with unstinting praise.
Haley is “a proven deal maker, and we look to be making plenty of deals,” he said.
DeVos is a “brilliant and passionate education advocate,” he said.
For Trump, who was spending a quiet day before Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the appointments ended a breathless two-week sprint since his stunning victory. In a videotaped holiday greeting to the public on Wednesday, he acknowledged the wounds left by a “long and bruising political campaign.”
His aides said he would resume meeting with potential Cabinet members today, when they said he would announce Carson, the retired neurosurgeon with whom Trump bitterly clashed and lavishly praised during the campaign.
Soon afterward, Trump is expected to name retired US Marine General James Mattis as secretary of defense.
However, the search for a secretary of state has become less clear, people involved in the transition said. Aides are divided between former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who staunchly backed Trump’s candidacy, but whose business dealings have drawn scrutiny; and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, viewed by many as a safe pick, but who harshly criticized Trump during the campaign.
The tension has left some on the team looking for a third choice, like retired US Marine General John Kelly, the former head of the US Southern Command; David Petraeus, the retired US Army general who was director of the CIA; or, a particular long shot, former US senator Jim Webb.
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