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Trump Vows ‘No New Deals,’ but Concerns Remain Over Business Ties A New Poll for 2020 Has Joe Biden in the Lead Among Democrats
(about 4 hours later)
■ President-elect Donald J. Trump said his company would make “no new deals” while he is in office but was silent about selling off businesses. ■ A first poll of 2020 is out, with Joe Biden in the lead among Democratic voters.
■ Rex W. Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil chief executive, is Mr. Trump’s choice for secretary of state, transition officials said. ■ President-elect Donald J. Trump talked “life” with Kanye West at Trump Tower.
■ Rick Perry has a knack for dancing around his deficiencies. ■ Rick Perry, selected to head the Energy Department — which he once forgot that he wanted to eliminate — has a knack for dancing around his deficiencies.
Mr. Trump, never big on sleep it seems, took to Twitter last night to announce his plans for his company in lieu of the Thursday news conference that he had postponed. Before Mr. Trump can even be inaugurated, the first poll of his potential Democratic opponents in 2020 is now out. Not surprisingly, it looks a bit premature.
The survey of 400 Democratic primary voters, conducted last week by Public Policy Polling, drops off precipitously from there, with Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey coming in at 4 percent, Senators Al Franken of Minnesota and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York at 3 percent, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York at 2 percent, and Julián Castro, President Obama’s housing secretary, at less than 1 percent.
In other words, the field is wide open — though Mr. Biden did keep his options open.
“Four years is a lifetime in American politics. And I think that nominees are determined by their parties based mostly on what skill set is most needed at that time,” the departing vice president said Sunday. “And who knows where we’re going to be two years from now when people really start looking seriously at what they are going to do.”
The rapper and music impresario Kanye West, who told an audience that he would have voted for Mr. Trump if he had bothered to vote, dropped by Trump Tower to discuss African-American issues with the president-elect. And the moment wasn’t going to slip by Mr. Trump, who came down to the lobby to greet the “New Kanye” in front of the cameras.
“Just friends, just friends. He’s a good man. Long time. Friends for a long time,” Mr. Trump told reporters about the meeting.
He added: “Life. We discussed life.”
Some of his fans may be saying they miss the old Kanye.
Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who famously forgot in a presidential primary debate that he wanted to eliminate the Energy Department, was selected on Tuesday to be the next energy secretary.
The prospect of the current energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist, turning over the reins of the government’s premier scientific laboratories to Mr. Perry is raising some eyebrows. The Energy Department, after all, is only tangentially involved in energy production. About 80 percent of its budget goes to basic science, the stewardship of the nation’s aging nuclear weapons stockpile, and the arduous cleanup of the Cold War nuclear weapons production plants.
Its web of scientific laboratories deal more in plasma physics than in oil and natural gas drilling.
But Mr. Perry does have a facility for dancing around his deficiencies.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, discussed the post of energy secretary, but in the end, his appointment would have only let his state’s new Democratic governor appoint a successor.
Mr. Manchin still may be the president-elect’s best Democratic partner as he tries to enact his agenda. His statement after Mr. Perry got the energy job:
Mr. Trump, never big on sleep it seems, took to Twitter on Monday night to announce his plans for his company in lieu of the Thursday news conference that he had postponed.
Those plans are unlikely to please ethicists, including those at the Office of Government Ethics who had advised the president-elect to divest himself of all his business assets and to place the proceeds in a truly blind trust.Those plans are unlikely to please ethicists, including those at the Office of Government Ethics who had advised the president-elect to divest himself of all his business assets and to place the proceeds in a truly blind trust.
Then:Then:
Finally:Finally:
His promise to make “no new deals” could cut down on the wooing of foreign businesses and governments, but existing projects in countries including Brazil, India and the Philippines have already enmeshed Mr. Trump in intricate economic negotiations.His promise to make “no new deals” could cut down on the wooing of foreign businesses and governments, but existing projects in countries including Brazil, India and the Philippines have already enmeshed Mr. Trump in intricate economic negotiations.
Case in point: Newsweek magazine is to publish a report on Tuesday that a Trump business partner in Turkey was arrested by the secret police and accused of being complicit in a failed coup in July. The aim, the magazine says, is to pressure the incoming administration to extradite a man exiled in Pennsylvania whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds responsible for the coup attempt.Case in point: Newsweek magazine is to publish a report on Tuesday that a Trump business partner in Turkey was arrested by the secret police and accused of being complicit in a failed coup in July. The aim, the magazine says, is to pressure the incoming administration to extradite a man exiled in Pennsylvania whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds responsible for the coup attempt.
The Trump transition team announced early Tuesday that Rex W. Tillerson, the chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was the president-elect’s choice for secretary of state, despite concerns over Mr. Tillerson’s close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.The Trump transition team announced early Tuesday that Rex W. Tillerson, the chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was the president-elect’s choice for secretary of state, despite concerns over Mr. Tillerson’s close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Those “relationships with leaders all over the world” are what has both Democrats and Republicans worried.Those “relationships with leaders all over the world” are what has both Democrats and Republicans worried.
Democratic interest groups are happily providing visual evidence.Democratic interest groups are happily providing visual evidence.
And:And:
But the concern is bipartisan.But the concern is bipartisan.
The news media was abuzz late Monday with reports that Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who famously forgot in a presidential primary debate that he wanted to eliminate the Energy Department, would soon be named energy secretary.
The deal, apparently, is not set, as the wooing of Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, continues.
But the prospect of the current energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist, turning over the reins of the government’s premier scientific laboratories to Mr. Perry is raising some eyebrows. The Energy Department, after all, is only tangentially involved in energy production. Its primary mission is the stewardship of the nation’s aging nuclear weapons stockpile — and the arduous cleanup of the Cold War nuclear weapons production plants.
Its web of scientific laboratories deal more in plasma physics than in oil and natural gas drilling.
But Mr. Perry does have a facility for dancing around his deficiencies.