Nov 13, 2016
WASHINGTON —
In coming days, Americans will learn of the team President-elect Donald Trump will bring to Washington when he is sworn into office in January. Trump could offer clues about how he intends to govern by the Cabinet he chooses.
"I will be president for all Americans," Donald Trump said.
Inauguration Day is two months away, but Donald Trump must make choices that will shape his administration and impact its performance.
“The mood is excellent,” said Kellyanne Conway, who served as Trump's campaign manager and is widely thought to be in line for a position in his administration. “We are working really hard to help form a government.”
Under consideration are Trump's strongest advocates during the campaign, like Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, possibly for secretary of defense, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, possibly for attorney general.
“Whatever I want to be, I'll discuss with the president-elect,” Giuliani said on ABC's This Week program. “It would have to be something where I felt he really needed me.”
“It will be a fabulous Cabinet filled with people who are qualified to do those jobs and who understand very clearly what his goals are,” Conway promised. “He has laid them out very specifically.”
‘Excuses are over'
Conway said her boss will be singularly focused on results as president.
“The excuses are over. We have a Republican president, a Republican House, a Republican Senate, so there is a mandate from the public to actually get things done, and he will do that,” she said.
While demonstrations against Trump continue in numerous cities, Democratic lawmakers are not ruling out working with the new president on certain items.
“We want to see infrastructure development, too,” said Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota. “We need to rebuild everything from transit, fiber optic broadband in our rural and urban areas. That is a worthy program. We will see if he really means it, though.”
But Democrats stress that other Trump promises, like deporting large numbers of undocumented immigrants and enacting the biggest tax cuts in U.S. history, will be fiercely opposed. No one knows what Trump's first moves as president will be, but the team he assembles now could provide some clues.