NEW YORK — His inauguration less than three weeks away, President-elect Donald Trump worked to fill senior posts in his administration on Tuesday as he began to press his agenda at home and abroad.
The incoming president tapped as U.S. trade representative a former Reagan official who has condemned Republicans’ commitment to free trade. Trump indicated that Robert Lighthizer, who is expected to take a hard line against China, would represent “the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first.”
The new administration’s specific plans for crafting new trade deals, spokesman Sean Spicer said, “will come in time.”
While several hundred high-level White House posts remain unfilled, just a handful of outstanding Cabinet-level vacancies remain, specifically in the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, as well as a director of national intelligence. Trump’s private meetings Tuesday included one with Leo MacKay, a senior executive at a military contractor who previously served in the Department of Veterans Affairs under President George W. Bush.
“The president-elect is up on the issues,” said MacKay, a senior vice president at Lockheed Martin Corp., citing “first-class health care” for veterans as one of his priorities.
Details about Trump’s plans have been hard to come by, both before and after his stunning election victory, but he declared late Tuesday on Twitter he would hold his first formal news conference as the president-elect on Jan. 11 in New York City.
Trump has already waited longer than any other president-elect in the modern era to hold his first news conference. Most have held such events within days of their elections.
It was unclear if Trump’s news conference next week would be the venue for his delayed announcement on how he plans to avoid potential conflicts of interest involving his businesses after taking office. Transition officials said multiple topics could be covered, but would not specifically say whether they included Trump’s businesses. Trump was supposed to detail the arrangements at a December news conference, but postponed the announcement.
While tending to his staff Tuesday, the president-elect and his senior advisers also worked to craft a domestic and international agenda while huddled behind closed doors in his Manhattan skyscraper.
He signaled Tuesday that he would not bless all of the GOP’s priorities on Capitol Hill, openly questioning the timing of the House Republican push to gut an independent ethics board just as the new Congress gathered in Washington.
The clash underscored Trump’s ability to influence the GOP’s priorities on Capitol Hill. Once Trump is inaugurated Jan. 20, the Republican Party will control the House, Senate and White House for the first time in nearly a decade.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence and Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, were planning separate visits with lawmakers today.
Ahead of those meetings Pence issued a direct challenge to Washington Republicans. “The president-elect has a very clear message to Capitol Hill. And that is, it’s time to get to work,” he said. “And it’s time to keep our word to the American people.”
Pence said the administration’s initial focus would be “repealing and replacing Obamacare” along with passing legislation to cut government regulation on businesses. Trump’s team has yet to say whether millions of Americans covered under the health care law would lose insurance altogether once it is repealed.
At the same time, Trump faced questions about his foreign policy, having issued a sharp statement about North Korea and China on Twitter the night before.
