President-elect huddles with advisers to flesh out cabinet appointments as thousands march against the election results across the country
President-elect Donald Trump huddled with advisers inside his Manhattan residence Saturday, plotting his next moves as thousands of demonstrators besieged Trump Tower and marched through other US cities in a fourth day of protests.
Trump appeared to be making some headway in forming a new administration, with campaign manager Kellyanne Conway telling reporters his appointment of a White House chief of staff was “imminent.”
She said Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus was one of several candidates for the key post.
According to CNN, aides have said the choice for chief of staff has narrowed down to Priebus and former Breitbart head and Trump campaign CEO Stephen Bannon.
Insiders have said that Trump himself favors Bannon, while his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner are pushing heavily for Priebus.
Bannon, who would undoubtedly be the more controversial selection, has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.
Court documents from 2007 revealed his ex-wife Mary Louise Piccard said that Bannon did not want their daughters attending a private school in Los Angeles — the Archer School for Girls — because he didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.
According the court filings, Piccard stated: “He said he doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiny brats.’”
Bannon denied the veracity of Piccard’s claim. “Mr. Bannon never said anything like that and proudly sent the girls to Archer for their middle school and high school education,” he said through a spokesperson in a statement issued to The Guardian.
Roger Stone, a veteran GOP strategist, mused on Twitter that selecting Priebus would elicit rage from the base that sustained Trump’s improbable political rise.
Trump has sought to strike a conciliatory tone since his election sent a shockwave around the world, announcing Friday he no longer intended to completely scrap Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, Obamacare.
“This will prove to be a great time in the lives of ALL Americans. We will unite and we will win, win, win!” he tweeted Saturday.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, blamed FBI director James Comey for her defeat, telling campaign donors his reopening of a probe into her email “stopped our momentum,” though he cleared her two days before the election, US media reported.
Meanwhile, more than 5,000 people marched toward Trump Tower in Manhattan amid cries of “Trump is NOT my president” and “New York hates you.”
In Los Angeles, as many as 10,000 people turned out for a march on a federal building in the city’s downtown after a night of protests that ended in several hundred arrests.
Thousands more marched peacefully in Chicago.
Trump Tower has been the epicenter of a furious round of activity as the Trump team fleshes out his cabinet picks and works to fill hundreds of other top government jobs.
“He’s receiving many visitors” and also spending time with his family, Conway said. “The senior team has been with him almost nonstop. So these are exciting times,” Conway said.
Among those seen entering the tower Saturday were Nigel Farage, whose UK Independence Party backed the Brexit vote that stunned Britons just as Trump’s victory did many Americans. Farage said he was there only as “a tourist,” but Conway said his meeting with Trump was “very productive.
“I think they enjoy each another’s company and they absolutely had an opportunity to talk about freedom and winning and what this all means for the world,” she said.
Also entering the building was the provocative documentary filmmaker Michael Moore — whose impromptu effort to meet with Trump was blocked by Secret Service agents.
Marion Marechal-Le Pen, a rising star in France’s far-right National Front and niece to its leader, Marine Le Pen, said Saturday she had contacted the Trump team about working with them.
Although Trump’s election has set off alarm bells in many world capitals, it has been warmly welcomed by Europe’s surging far-right movements.
Around the world, Trump’s every move is being scrutinized for clues to how the political novice will govern.
His U-turn on Obamacare — which candidate Trump had branded a “disaster” — was prompted by his White House meeting with the outgoing president a day earlier.
In his first post-election interview, Trump told The Wall Street Journal he may maintain a ban on insurance companies denying coverage because of so-called pre-existing health conditions. He also said he may continue to ensure that young people can remain on their parents’ policies until the age of 26, a key Obamacare tenet.
“I like those very much,” the 70-year-old real estate mogul said of both points.
It marked one of several moves by Trump and his advisers away from his more sweeping campaign positions.
Asked by The Wall Street Journal whether he would, as threatened, name a special prosecutor to investigate his opponent Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state, Trump deflected.
“It’s not something I’ve given a lot of thought, because I want to solve health care, jobs, border control, tax reform,” he said. Not long ago Trump was leading crowds in chants of “Lock her up!”
Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich also cast doubt on whether Trump would make Mexico fund his proposed border wall — another rallying cry.
“He’ll spend a lot of time controlling the border. He may not spend very much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it, but it was a great campaign device,” Gingrich was reported as saying by The Washington Post.
Despite his more measured tone, the Republican has yet to respond to mounting calls to reassure Americans who fear a xenophobic crackdown under his authority.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups, tracked more than 200 incidents of election-related harassment and intimidation in the three days following the election.
More than 47,000 people have signed an SPLC petition urging Trump to clearly distance himself from “haters” — from white nationalists to anti-Muslim and anti-gay extremists — who are celebrating his victory.
Asked by The Wall Street Journal whether he thought his rhetoric had gone too far, Trump responded: “No. I won.”
But he added that he would now take a more positive approach.
“I want a country that loves each other,” he said, arguing that the way to ease tension would be to “bring in jobs.”
In a CBS interview to be aired on Sunday, Trump spoke warmly of the election night call he received from Hillary Clinton conceding his victory.
“It was a lovely call, and it was a tough call for her,” he said, according to interview excerpts. He praised Clinton as “very strong and very smart.
As reported by The Times of Israe