Donald Trump says only he knows finalists for Cabinet

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition is back on track Wednesday after the team purged numerous people put in place by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a senior transition team member tells CBS News. He said Tuesday that after an exchange with Trump’s team, he had “changed my recommendation” and urged others to “stay away”. But Mr Trump’s transition team was reviewing his paid consulting work for foreign governments, which could delay a nomination or bump Mr Giuliani to a different position.

Trump has also pledged to introduce ethics reforms that would expand the definition of lobbying to cut down on the revolving door in Washington, but it’s unclear whether that would apply to his transition. “Everything up there is very smooth”.

“Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions”.

In addition to reports of “knife fight”-like internal discord, an insane top security clearance request for the son-in-law of the President-elect, a freakish game of cat-and-mouse with the press, and the clear impression that no one on Team Trump expected they might have to actually run the country, the New York Times reports that Donald Trump’s transition team has not yet been in contact with the Justice Department, the State Department, or the Pentagon”. Trump’s public statements have, too: He has tweeted about the popular vote (he could have won it, he insists) and protesters opposing him (“incited by the media”, he wrote).

In a burst of tweets, Trump also rejected as “false” a New York Times report that foreign leaders were having trouble getting through to the billionaire president-elect.

British Prime Minister Theresa May reached Trump 24 hours after Egypt and Israel, in what the Times called “a striking break from diplomatic practice”.

“It became clear to me that they view jobs as lollipops, things you give out to good boys and girls”, Prof Cohen, who was critical of Mr Trump during his candidacy, told the newspaper.

From the outset, his former transition chief throughout the campaign, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, had to be replaced with Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Though Christie has denied any role in it and has not been accused of involvement, his history with the Kushner family is understood to have led to his unceremonious ouster from the transition team head and that of his allies, such as Rogers. Representative Devin Nunes of California, who is a member of the executive committee advising Trump and is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the transition was operating differently because it was not filled with Washington elitists.

In 2005, Mr Christie, then a federal prosecutor, put Mr Kushner’s father in jail for two years on charges of tax evasion, witness tampering and offering illegal campaign donations.

He announced his national security team December 1, 2008, with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Robert Gates as secretary of defense, Eric Holder as attorney general and retired Marine Gen. James Jones as national security adviser.

Several US news outlets have reported that former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani is tipped for secretary of state.

“We have not been contacted”, said John Kirby, the State Department press secretary. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who was among the challengers to Trump during the GOP primaries, said on CNN Tuesday that the former Bush appointee was “totally unfit” for the job, and also dismissed Giuliani as a choice.

The Trump transition has yet to take up offices in the State Department or the Pentagon, government officials tell NBC News, and as of last night Trump had not received an intelligence briefing.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio met with Trump on Wednesday, exiting Trump Tower to say he had concerns about the president-elect’s proposed deportations of undocumented immigrants, which the mayor warned would be “counterproductive”. The president-elect has continued to involve his adult children as advisers during the transition, although he has said they would oversee his business portfolio in a “blind trust” once he is sworn in. They declined to provide details about how many lobbyists had been fired or to name them, but said it was a priority for Pence and Trump.

Trump has spent the week since his election holed up in the Manhattan skyscraper that bears his name.

He traveled without the traditional press pool of journalists, breaking a protocol created to ensure the public has access to information about the president-elect’s whereabouts, schedule and meetings.