President-elect Trump meets with Mitt Romney in NJ

US President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday he saw “tremendous talent” in the stream of cabinet hopefuls – including former critic Mitt Romney – invited to his golf club for talks, but did not reveal any new nominations. He previously said Trump would be unsafe as a president and that “when it comes to foreign policy he is very, very not smart”.

Yet it wasn’t clear if Romney has any interest in the job, and multiple reports suggest former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is also among Trump’s top picks for the post.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former United Nations ambassador John Bolton and former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) are other possible candidates for the top position.

During the 2016 presidential election, Mitt Romney and Donald Trump were at one another’s throats.

Some of Romney’s closest advisers initially expressed surprise at the news that Trump and Romney would meet.

Mr Trump will conduct more meetings with potential appointees at the golf course over the weekend.

Hours after the picks were revealed, NY 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. Trump has meanwhile warmly praised the leadership of Putin and promised to ease rocky relations with the Kremlin. When it comes to trade, Romney supported NAFTA in 2012 – a trade deal about which Trump has said he will renegotiate or end – and Romney also advocated for larger trade deals, according to ABC News.

Others meeting with Trump on Sunday, according to the transition team, include Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the only woman now in a Republican congressional leadership post; Giuliani; Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, who has pressed aggressive measures to crack down on undocumented immigrants and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He told Reuters recently that Trump’s policy advisers had discussed drafting a proposal for the president-elect’s consideration that would reinstate a national registry for visitors and immigrants from Muslim countries.

“How are you, sir?” inquired Romney before shaking hands with Trump and Pence.

But the possibility that Trump and the man he labeled a “choke artist” could find common cause in the new administration was nonetheless a hot topic ahead of their meeting Saturday at the president-elect’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf retreat.

Trump called Mattis a “great guy” but didn’t say much about his other guests.

The president-elect also met on Saturday with retired Marine General James Mattis, considered a contender for defense secretary.

Trump is building his new administration after his shock Nov 8 election win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, with an eye on his inauguration on Jan 20. The former governor also wrote that given Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, there was certain to be a “bombshell” within them.

As a former governor of MA and private equity CEO, Romney doesn’t have much foreign policy experience, but his presidential run offers insight into his views on worldwide affairs and where those might clash with Trump’s.

Romney had ripped Trump as a “phony” and a “fraud”, and said a presidential nominee should be disqualified for not releasing his tax returns – criticism he wrote in a Facebook post in May.

Sessions and Pompeo would both require Senate confirmation before assuming their designated roles; Flynn would not.

If given a job, Romney, a more mainstream Republican, would serve alongside more hawkish Trump appointees named on Friday: Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama as attorney general, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as national security adviser and Representative Mike Pompeo as Central Intelligence Agency director.