Priebus tapped as White House chief of staff
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus as his White House chief of staff and conservative media executive Stephen Bannon as his senior counselor.
Trump’s transition team announced the decisions Sunday. The moves are Trump’s first as he sets about putting together his administration.
In selecting Priebus, Trump is turning to a Washington veteran with deep ties to Republican leadership, particularly House Speaker Paul Ryan. Bannon ran the conservative website Breitbart before joining Trump’s presidential campaign during the general election. Neither has significant governing experience.
In a statement, Trump says Priebus and Bannon are “highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign.”
A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump says it would be “unrealistic” to purge his children from his businesses and hand their control over to an independent trustee.
Appearing on televised interviews on Sunday, Giuliani initially said Trump should set up some kind of “blind trust.” When pressed, Giuliani told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump has an unusual situation and that creating a traditional blind trust would “basically put his children out of work.”
He says they then would have to “start a whole new business and that would set up … new problems.”
Giuliani said Trump’s three children – Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric – who are involved in his businesses would not advise Trump once he becomes president in January. All three children are, however, are on the executive committee of Trump’s transition team.
Trump’s attorneys have filed a motion to delay until after the presidential inauguration a class-action fraud lawsuit involving the president-elect and his now-defunct Trump University.
In the motion filed Saturday in San Diego federal court, Trump’s lawyer Daniel Petrocelli argues that the extra months would give both sides time to possibly reach a settlement.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Petrocelli wants to postpone the trial until sometime soon after the Jan. 20 inauguration to allow Trump to focus on the transition to the White House.
The motion also requests that Trump be allowed to be questioned in a videotaped deposition to be recorded before the trial.
The lawsuit alleging Trump University failed on its promise to teach success in real estate is scheduled to begin Nov. 28.