Trump national security picks under scrutiny

President-elect Donald Trump met Saturday with Mitt Romney, one of his most vocal Republican Party critics now considered a long-shot choice for secretary of state, after naming three polarizing conservatives to fill key national security and judicial posts.
 
Anti-immigration Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of Trump’s earliest supporters during the campaign, was nominated Friday to be attorney general, signaling Trump is prepared to take his hard line on illegal immigration into the White House.
 
To lead the CIA, Trump tapped hawkish Congressman Mike Pompeo, a strident opponent of the Iran nuclear deal and a sharp critic of Trump’s campaign rival Hillary Clinton during hearings into the 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.
 
The incoming commander-in-chief also appointed retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a top military counsel to the 70-year-old Republican billionaire-turned-world-leader, as his national security adviser. 
 
Hours after the picks were revealed, New York state’s attorney general announced that Trump had reached a $25 million settlement in class action suits accusing his now-defunct Trump University of fraud.
 
The case had been a cloud over his campaign for months, and the deal spares him the embarrassment of further legal wrangling as he forms his government. Attorney Daniel Petrocelli hailed it as a “victory for everybody.”
 
While Trump’s picks suggest he is adhering to conservative positions, he made efforts to send reassuring signals about stability and continuity regarding America’s place in the world.
 
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said he had a “good talk” with Trump by telephone, telling AFP in Brussels he was “absolutely confident” that the incoming president remains committed to the transatlantic alliance.
 
Kansas lawmaker Pompeo, 52, co-authored a report slamming then-secretary of state Clinton’s handling of the Benghazi attack, in which the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died.
 
In a rare move, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio raised a question on Friday: What if speculation proves correct and Trump decides against settling in Washington and maintains his principal residence in New York? Since his election last week, the real estate billionaire — who has always lived in New York — has hardly left Manhattan.
 
He has spent most of the time entrenched with his family and advisers in his Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower, causing havoc in the heart of the country’s largest city.
 
“We have never faced that situation before,” De Blasio told reporters. Although he provided no concrete figures, De Blasio said security for the president-elect has been more formidable than during the annual UN General Assembly, which brings together dozens of world leaders.
 
City authorities — who expect Trump to remain in Manhattan as the holidays approach — plan to reinforce security measures and traffic restrictions already in place around Trump Tower until his inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20.
 
“The president elect has to get into office and have the experience of being in the White House and make the decision that’s right for him and his family,” he said. “When the president-elect takes on the role of president of the United States and has that responsibility, the need to be in Washington and deal with situations that can only be handled from the White House will become quite frequent,” he added. “But it’s not right to prejudge.”
 
Whatever happens, De Blasio did not hide the fact that he hopes to limit the cost and recuperate the “maximum” possible reimbursement from the federal government.

Source: Arab News