Trump picks Alabama’s Jeff Sessions for attorney general

Flynn, who often introduced the reality TV star at campaign rallies, has also been censured for his pro-Trump tweets, and was forced to apologize after retweeting an anti-Semitic message.

Retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn served as Trump’s national security adviser during the campaign and agreed Friday (Nov. 18) to continue on.

Pompeo is a conservative Republican and a fierce critic of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. It was only after losing that job that Flynn became an outspoken Trump supporter. In a February 12 interview on CNN, he said Trump was one candidate he had advised, but that he is “advising any candidate that has asked me for advice on a range of issues, national security, foreign policy”.

As national security adviser to Trump, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn would be responsible for helping a president with no national security experience navigate complicated global issues including the unfinished campaign against the Islamic State, the expansionist agenda of China and rising aggression from Russian Federation.

The main concern about appointing General Flynn as the closest adviser on foreign policy and national security to an ill-prepared and inexperienced president, remains, however, his judgment.

In recent public comments, including his fiery address at the Republican National Convention, Flynn has emphasized his view that Islamic State extremists pose an existential threat on a global scale, demanding a far more aggressive USA military campaign against the group, as well as his belief that Washington should work more closely with Moscow.

Trump and Flynn agree that the US should cooperate more with Russian Federation to battle Islamic State militants and other extremist groups.

The Flynn Intel Group also lobbied Congress even as Flynn joined Trump in a presidential intelligence briefing in August – a possible security misstep, according to several ethics law experts.

Flynn said he was “deeply humbled and honored to accept the position”.

Trump said Pompeo “will be a brilliant and unrelenting leader for our intelligence community to ensure the safety of Americans and our allies”. On Friday, Trump called Sessions “a world-class legal mind”. When Sessions was nominated to be a federal judge in 1986, he was dogged by racist comments he was accused of making while serving as USA attorney in Alabama. Sessions denied the accusation, but withdrew from consideration. Although the panel set up to investigate the killing of four Americans (including the ambassador, Christopher Stevens) in 2012 found no evidence of wrongdoing by the Obama administration, Mr Pompeo and a colleague issued a 48-page addendum in which they insisted there had been a cover-up. That is not only untrue but extremely unsafe”, says Will McCants, director for the Brookings Project on USA relations with the Islamic world and the author of The ISIS Apocalypse: “The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State. Islam is practiced by 1.6 billion Muslims around the world.

First created in the early days of the Cold War, the job of national security advisor is seen as critical to implementing a president’s worldview on the various departments and agencies involved in national security. In any case, he seems an unpromising choice for the next president’s national security adviser. In an interview after the election, he said he thought the USA and Turkey could cooperate more on Syria. Bob Corker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who met with Trump Thursday.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence leaves Trump Tower, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in NY. Mattis would require a congressional waiver to serve as defence secretary because he has not been out of uniform for the required minimum of seven years. He is spending the weekend at his New Jersey golf club.

At the same time, Trump is soliciting the help of Mitt Romney, a mainstream consensus figure who had been the face of the Republican resistance to Trump’s candidacy, in assembling his government.

But Romney is said to feel compelled by patriotic duty to answer Trump’s call for counsel, and he has always been animated by global affairs and enticed by a return to government service – even if he stops short of acquiescing and agreeing to join the Cabinet should Trump extend an offer.