New chief of staff: Trump ready to lead

President-elect Donald Trump is prepared to lead America and the Republican-controlled Congress is ready to work with him, his new chief of staff Reince Priebus said Monday.
In his first 100 days in office Trump wants to address fighting illegal immigration, cutting taxes, “getting his arms around” US foreign policy and America’s place in the world and changing President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law, Priebus told ABC.
“I think we have an opportunity to do all of those things, given the fact that we have the House and the Senate and we have an eager Congress ready to get work done,” Priebus said.
Trump himself said Sunday in his first interview since his stunning upset election win last week over Hillary Clinton that he plans to move aggressively in pursuing a conservative agenda. The interview on the CBS program “60 Minutes” provided Trump with his first post-election forum to talk about what he will do after taking office Jan. 20.
It also allowed him to try to reintroduce himself after an ugly, name-calling campaign has sparked protests in cities across the United States.
Trump, 70, is a real estate developer with no experience at all in government, and during the campaign he showed little familiarity with foreign or domestic policy issues, speaking only in generalities as he pledged to revive the economy and otherwise “make America great again.”
Priebus on Monday was asked about a Wall Street journal report that Obama plans to spend more time with Trump than is common in US presidential transitions because he thinks Trump needs more guidance.
The two men met at the White House last week to start talking about the handover of power.
“What I see is a president-elect that is getting prepared,” said Priebus, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and one of many in the party who clashed with Trump during the campaign.
“I see a staff in New York that is very busy doing the best job that they can for the American people,” Priebus said.
“And I see President-elect Trump being very calm and cool and collected — and prepared to lead the American people.”

Trump makes call to Xi
US President-elect Donald Trump has made his first call to the leader of China, and is “getting his arms around our foreign policy” as he prepares to assume the leadership of the world’s sole superpower, a top aide said Monday.
The Republican billionaire’s diplomatic foray came as US President Barack Obama was about to leave for a farewell visit to Europe to reassure worried allies about a man he once warned was “unfit” to lead the United States.
Ensconced at his Trump Tower headquarters in Manhattan, a magnet of street protests, since his shock election on Nov. 8, Trump and his inner circle were again working Monday to shape his new administration.
More cabinet-level appointments will be rolled out this week, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager told reporters in New York.
His first two appointments came Sunday — onetime Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus is his White House chief of staff, and anti-establishment media firebrand Steve Bannon will be his chief strategist.
The appointment of Bannon, the chief of ultra-conservative Breitbart News, has raised hackles, with Jewish and Muslim leaders expressing concerns about Bannon, who has championed the so-called “alt-right” perspective.
The New York real estate mogul has also spent time calling world leaders, as he begins to develop ties with America’s allies — and adversaries.
Trump, who frequently savaged China on the campaign trail and threatened to impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods, spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping late Sunday.
He told Xi he believes they will have “one of the strongest relationships for both countries moving forward,” the president-elect’s transition team said early Monday.
They agreed to meet “at an early date” to discuss the relationship, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.
“Getting his arms around foreign policy” was one of Trump’s four top priorities, along with health care, immigration and taxes, as he prepares for his first 100 days as president, said Priebus.
“I see president-elect Trump being very calm and cool and collected. And prepared to lead the American people,” said Priebus, seen as an establishment counter-weight to Bannon, on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Trump, a 70-year-old real estate developer and reality TV star who had never run for political office, has threatened to shake up America’s most important international relationships.
In the campaign, he railed against free trade agreements, called NATO obsolete, suggested that Japan and South Korea get their own nuclear weapons, and spoke admiringly of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, he met for 90 minutes with Obama at the White House — an “unbelievably interesting” conversation about the “things that are tough right now,” Trump told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview aired Sunday.
How much of Trump’s agenda will survive the realities of governing remains an open question, but he has signalled that he intends to keep a populist edge by naming Bannon to his top team of advisers.
On the domestic front, Priebus said Trump’s focus in the first 100 days would be on immigration, repealing and replacing Obama’s health care reform, and legislation to cut taxes and simplify the tax code.
“Think we have an opportunity to do all of those things given the fact that we have the House and the Senate and we have an eager Congress ready to get work done,” said Priebus.

Source: Arab News