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Trump Diversifies Cabinet; Picks Nikki Haley and Betsy DeVos Trump Diversifies Cabinet; Picks Nikki Haley and Betsy DeVos
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump named two prominent Republican women to cabinet posts on Wednesday, recruiting Betsy DeVos, a prominent Republican philanthropist and educational activist, as education secretary, and Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina as ambassador to the United Nations. WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump moved swiftly on Wednesday to diversify his cabinet and try to heal lingering rifts in the Republican Party, recruiting Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina and Betsy DeVos, a prominent Republican fund-raiser, both of whom opposed him during the campaign, as well as Ben Carson, who challenged Mr. Trump for the Republican nomination.
Moving swiftly to diversify his cabinet, Mr. Trump was also nearing an announcement that Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who ran an outsider’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, as secretary of housing and urban development. Ms. Haley, who was named ambassador to the United Nations, and Ms. DeVos, who was named education secretary, would be the first women in Mr. Trump’s cabinet. Mr. Carson, whose selection as secretary of housing and urban development is expected to be announced on Friday, would be the first African-American.
Ms. DeVos and Ms. Haley would be the first women in Mr. Trump’s cabinet, while Mr. Carson would be the first African-American. Ms. Haley is Indian-American and a rising star in Republican politics. But none of these choices suggest a president-elect who is reaching beyond reliably conservative circles for his major policy makers. But none of these choices suggest a president-elect who is reaching beyond reliably conservative precincts to fill his administration.
A major Republican fund-raiser from Michigan, Ms. DeVos, 58, is a passionate believer in school choice, a subject that she and Mr. Trump discussed last week when she met him at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. She is a member by marriage of the DeVos family, the founders of Amway and one of the largest contributors to the Michigan Republican Party. Ms. Haley, 44, an Indian-American who is a rising star in Republican politics, pushed for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina State House after the deadly church shooting in Charleston in June 2015. During the Republican primary, she was a frequent and vocal critic of Mr. Trump and supported Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
“The status quo in education is not acceptable,” Ms. DeVos said in a statement. “Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.” On Wednesday, Mr. Trump rolled out their appointments with unstinting praise. Ms. Haley, he said in a statement, was “a proven deal maker, and we look to be making plenty of deals.” Ms. DeVos, he said, was a “brilliant and passionate education advocate.”
Ms. DeVos, a former finance chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, is one of the nation’s most avid proponents of school choice. This includes charter schools, which are publicly funded but typically run independent of local school boards and teachers’ unions, and school vouchers, which give students tax dollars to apply toward private school tuition. Ms. DeVos, 58, is one of the nation’s most avid supporters of school choice, a subject she and Mr. Trump discussed last week when she met him at his country club in Bedminster, N.J. But Ms. DeVos also sharply criticized him during the campaign and spent much of the year raising money for other Republicans on the ballot.
In the three elections preceding 2016, members of her family gave nearly $9.5 million to party committees and candidates. But Ms. DeVos sharply criticized Mr. Trump this campaign, and spent much of the year raising money for other Republicans on the ballot. For Mr. Trump, who was spending a quiet day before Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., the appointments ended a breathless two-week sprint since his stunning victory. In a videotaped holiday greeting to the American people on Wednesday, he acknowledged the wounds left by a “long and bruising political campaign.”
“Until we have a better reason to embrace and support the top of the ticket, and see an agenda that is truly an opportunity agenda, then we have lots of other options in which to invest and spend our time helping,” she said in May. His aides said he would resume meeting with potential cabinet members on Friday, when they said he would announce Mr. Carson, the retired neurosurgeon with whom Mr. Trump bitterly clashed and lavishly praised during the campaign.
Ms. DeVos and her husband, Dick, have been the propelling force behind the rapid expansion of charter schools in Michigan, as founders of the Great Lakes Education Project. The state has one of the most generous charter school laws in the nation, allowing an unusually large number of colleges, universities, and school districts to grant charters, with little state oversight. Soon after, Mr. Trump is expected to name Gen. James N. Mattis as defense secretary. But the search for a secretary of state has become less clear, people involved in the transition said. Aides are divided between Rudolph W. Giuliani, who staunchly backed Mr. Trump’s candidacy but whose business dealings pose potential problems; and Mitt Romney, viewed by many as a safe pick but who harshly criticized Mr. Trump during the campaign.
An unusually high percentage of the charters — about 80 percent — are operated for profit. In Detroit, which has the nation’s second-highest share of students in charter schools, the charters have been characterized by a high churn of students, teachers, as well as the companies that operate the schools. Even groups that support charters have pushed to establish stricter oversight, but legislation to do so failed last spring, largely because of lobbying by the DeVos’ group. The tension has left some on the team looking for a third choice, like Gen. John F. Kelly of the Marines, the former head of the United States Southern Command, which oversees the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; David H. Petraeus, the retired Army general who was director of the C.I.A.; or, a particular long shot, former Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, who could be the lone Democrat in the cabinet after having briefly run for the party’s presidential nomination last year.
Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, criticized the selection in a statement emailed to reporters, saying Ms. DeVos’s work over the years had “done more to undermine public education than support students.” Choosing Mr. Petraeus, who resigned in 2012 in a scandal over his leaking of classified information, would be somewhat easier after Mr. Trump said he would not pursue a case against Hillary Clinton on similar grounds, one person close to the transition said.
“She has lobbied for failed schemes, like vouchers — which take away funding and local control from our public schools — to fund private schools at taxpayers’ expense,” Ms. Garcia said. “These schemes do nothing to help our most vulnerable students, while they ignore or exacerbate glaring opportunity gaps.” The debate over secretary of state is a microcosm of the balance Mr. Trump is trying to strike in all of his appointments — between loyalists who will appeal to his base and more mainstream Republicans, many of whom stridently opposed his candidacy. In Ms. DeVos, Ms. Haley and Mr. Carson, he is trying to appeal to several of these constituencies.
Mr. Trump’s selection of Ms. DeVos, Ms. Haley and Mr. Carson could blunt criticism that his early picks have come from a homogeneous group of older white men. Mr. Trump’s selections could blunt criticism that his early picks came from a homogeneous bloc of older, white men. If confirmed, Ms. Haley would step down as governor and be replaced by the state’s lieutenant governor, Henry McMaster, who was an early supporter of Mr. Trump.
If she is confirmed, Ms. Haley will step down as governor and be replaced by the state’s lieutenant governor, Henry McMaster, who was an early and vocal supporter of Mr. Trump. Mr. Carson is a familiar face to Americans after a Republican primary campaign in which he briefly rose to the top of the polls.
Mr. Carson would be the first African-American member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet – and a familiar face to millions of Americans after a Republican primary campaign in which he briefly soared to the top of the polls. It was not clear whether Mr. Carson had accepted the offer. Neither he nor Ms. Haley is particularly experienced for the posts they have been offered. Mr. Carson had even seemed to take himself out of the running for a cabinet position last week, with his friends putting out word that he had concluded he was not qualified to run a vast federal bureaucracy. Some pointed to Ms. Haley’s experience as a legislator and trade ambassador for South Carolina as credentials for the United Nations post.
Ms. Haley and Mr. Carson have no particular experience relating to the posts they have been offered. Mr. Carson had even seemed to take himself out of the running for a cabinet position last week, with his friends putting out word that he had concluded that he was not qualified to run a vast federal bureaucracy. John D. Negroponte, a former ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush who opposed Mr. Trump’s candidacy, said Ms. Haley was an “intriguing and very good choice.”
Ms. Haley supported Senator Marco Rubio of Florida during the Republican primaries, and, like Ms. DeVos, was a prominent and frequent critic of Mr. Trump early in his run. That criticism was thought to have kept her off Mr. Trump’s list of vice-presidential candidates, although her name was mentioned before he chose Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana. “She’s not an ideologue,” he said. “She’ll quickly grasp that there are aspects of the United Nations’ work that can benefit the United States.”
In recent days, Mr. Trump has begun meeting with a wider array of prospects, either for advice or as potential cabinet picks. He is also said to be considering Harold Ford Jr., an African-American former Democratic representative from Tennessee, as transportation secretary, or for another post, though those talks have not become serious, according to an official close to the Trump transition. Ms. DeVos, a former finance chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, won the support of Senator Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee and called her an “excellent choice.”
Mr. Trump also met with Michelle Rhee, the former superintendent of schools in Washington and Representative Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii Democrat who is the first Hindu member of Congress. She favors charter schools, which are publicly funded but typically run independently of local school boards and teachers’ unions; and school vouchers, which give students tax dollars to apply toward private-school tuition.
Until Wednesday, however, his appointments had consisted of five white men: Stephen K. Bannon as chief strategist in the White House, Reince Priebus as chief of staff, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as attorney general, Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas as director of the C.I.A., and Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn as national security adviser. He is rumored to be close to naming Gen. James N. Mattis as secretary of defense. Ms. Devos’s husband, Dick, is an heir to the Amway fortune. In the three elections before 2016, members of the family gave nearly $9.5 million to party committees and candidates — but not to Mr. Trump.
“Until we have a better reason to embrace and support the top of the ticket, and see an agenda that is truly an opportunity agenda,” Ms. DeVos said in May, “then we have lots of other options in which to invest and spend our time helping.”
The DeVoses have been the force behind a rapid expansion of charter schools in Michigan. The state has one of the most generous charter school laws in the nation, allowing an unusually large number of colleges, universities and school districts to grant charters, with little state oversight.
About 80 percent of those — an uncommonly high percentage — are operated for profit. In Detroit, the American city with the second-highest share of students in charter schools, the charters have been characterized by a high turnover of students, teachers and companies that operate them. Even groups that support charters have pushed for stricter oversight. But legislation to do so failed last spring, largely because of lobbying by the DeVos’s group.
“The status quo in education is not acceptable,” Ms. DeVos said in a statement on Wednesday after her nomination was announced. “Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.”
Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union, criticized the nomination, saying that Ms. DeVos’s efforts over the years had “done more to undermine public education than support students.”
“She has lobbied for failed schemes, like vouchers — which take away funding and local control from our public schools — to fund private schools at taxpayers’ expense,” she said. “These schemes do nothing to help our most vulnerable students while they ignore or exacerbate glaring opportunity gaps.”