NEW YORK — US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA, signaling a sharp rightward shift in US security policy as he begins to form his Cabinet.
Trump on Friday also named retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. A former military intelligence chief, Flynn has accused the Obama administration of being too soft on terrorism.
The selections form the first outlines of Trump’s Cabinet and national security teams. Given his lack of governing experience and vague policy proposals during the campaign, his selection of advisers is being scrutinized both in the US and abroad.
Trump’s initial decisions suggest a more aggressive military involvement in counterterror strategy. Sessions, who is best known for his hard-line immigration views, has questioned whether terror suspects should benefit from the rights available in US courts.
Pompeo’s nomination to lead the CIA also opens the prospect of the US resuming torture of detainees. Trump has backed harsh interrogation techniques that President Barack Obama and Congress have banned, saying the US “should go tougher than waterboarding,” which simulates drowning. In 2014, Pompeo criticized Obama for “ending our interrogation program” and said intelligence officials “are not torturers, they are patriots.”
Sessions and Pompeo would both require Senate confirmation before assuming their designated roles; Flynn would not.
In a separate matter on Friday, it was announced that Trump had agreed to a $25 million settlement to resolve three lawsuits over Trump University, his former school for real estate investors. The lawsuits alleged the school misled students and failed to deliver on its promises in programs that cost up to $35,000.
Trump has denied the allegations and has said repeatedly he would not settle. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who announced the settlement, called it “a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”
Messages seeking comment from Trump attorneys and a spokeswoman were not immediately returned.
The president-elect did not announce his Cabinet choices in person, instead releasing a statement. He has made no public appearances this week, holing up in his New York skyscraper for meetings. He is spending the weekend at his New Jersey golf club.
Trump is still weighing a range of candidates for other leading national security posts.
Possibilities for secretary of state are said to include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who met with Trump Thursday.
On Saturday, Trump was to meet with retired Gen. James Mattis, a contender to lead the Pentagon. He was also meeting with 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who lambasted Trump as a “con man” and a “fraud” in a stinging speech in March. Trump responded by repeatedly referring to Romney as a “loser.”
Members of minority groups have voiced alarm at Trump’s staff appointments so far, saying his choices threaten national unity and promise to turn back the clock on progress for racial, religious and sexual minorities. They say comments attributed to Trump’s picks could embolden some Americans to lash out at members of minority groups. — AP
