Elect Pence Removes Lobbyists From Transition Team, Dismantling Structure That Christie Built

Vice President-elect Mike Pence has reportedly ordered a ban on lobbyists from President-elect Donald Trump‘s transition team.

Trump’s team was essentially starting from scratch, scrapping much of the preliminary transition work New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie conducted during the campaign. I mean, the whole place is one big lobbyist’.

Mr Trump tweeted that the process of selecting his new cabinet and other positions was “very organised”. “Do I understand that it’s likely that people who’ve been involved in the center of this for some time, and have been surrogating on television, are likely front-runners?”

A Trump official said John Bolton, a former USA ambassador to the United Nations, remained in contention for secretary of state.

Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that Jared Kushner has been attempting to sideline Christie and his allies in the transition process, something that has slowed down the effort considerably.

Trump and Pence’s offices did not respond to questions about the ban, but the official line from the Trump transition is that everything is going well.

Beginning around 6:30 a.m. ET, Trump took to Twitter to shoot down details of the NY paper’s Tuesday story, titled “Firings and Discord Put Trump Transition Team in a State of Disarray”.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks has said the team plans to respect the traditions of press access at the White House.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt was the first to reach Trump for such a call last Wednesday, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not long afterward.

“The candidate who ran as the outsider populist has populated his transition team with a rogues’ gallery of insiders – corporate lawyers, lobbyists, wonks from corporate-funded think tanks and corporate executives”, said Public Citizen president Robert Weissman. They’re angry, arrogant, screaming “you LOST!”

Donald Trump with Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto in September. He expressed confidence that by Trump’s January 20 inauguration, “everything will be in good hands”. Already some Republicans have indicated he’d have trouble getting confirmed – including Kentucky Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama told reporters. I think there is, but I think this is growing pains.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who tangled ferociously with Trump during the Republican primary but ultimately endorsed the businessman, could get a top job such as attorney general. Trump was due to receive his first formal national security briefing on Tuesday.

“Also, I have spoken to many foreign leaders”, he said, adding in another tweet that he had taken calls from Russia, Britain, China, Saudi Arabia and Japan”.

Trump is also pondering appointment of a new secretary of State.

Perhaps the most prominent clash is the battle for secretary of state, which former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has made clear he’d prefer.

During a forum Monday sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Giuliani said he would not be attorney general. Earlier, Freedman privately told associates that the Trump team would be “very punitive” toward Republicans who signed letters opposing him during the campaign and was looking to put “true loyalists” in top jobs.

Asked if there is anybody better, Giuliani said: “Maybe me; I don’t know”.

Meanwhile, one potential Cabinet appointee, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, has declined to be considered. Frank Gaffney, an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist, denied a media report that he had been named to Trump’s transition crew.

On Tuesday, Republican Mike Rogers announced his departure from the team, possibly signaling Trump’s desire to appoint fewer establishment Republican figures to his administration.

Giuliani, New York’s mayor at the time of the September 11, 2001, attacks by Islamist al Qaeda militants, is known as a hardliner on national security matters.

Also spotted Tuesday at Trump Tower: Marla Maples, Trump’s second wife. This would bring the transition more in line with Trump’s campaign-trail pledge to “drain the swamp” of veteran politicians and special interests in Washington.