REUTERS - President-elect
Donald Trump on Wednesday picked a fossil fuel industry defender as his top
environmental official, another retired general as homeland security
chief and
Iowa's governor as U.S. ambassador to China in choices at odds with some of his
recent pronouncements.
Trump, continuing to
build his Cabinet as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20, said Oklahoma
Attorney General Scott Pruitt, 48, would be nominated to head the Environmental
Protection Agency. Pruitt sued the EPA in a bid to undo a key regulation under
outgoing President Barack Obama that would curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed
for climate change, mainly from coal-fired power plants.
Trump tapped retired
Marine Corps General John Kelly, 66, for secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security, whose responsibilities include immigration. Kelly, the third
retired general named by Trump to a senior administration post, last year told
Congress that a lack of security on the U.S.-Mexican border posed a threat to
the United States.
Trump's transition
team said Republican Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, 70, who has boasted of close
ties to Beijing's leaders, was picked as U.S. ambassador to China.
In addition,
transition officials said Linda McMahon, 68, former CEO of professional wrestling
company WWE and wife of wrestling kingpin Vince McMahon, was Trump's choice to
head the Small Business Administration. Trump has taken part in WWE events in
the past and has close ties to the McMahons. He is a member of the WWE Hall of
Fame.
All four posts
require Senate confirmation.
Pruitt's selection
came despite a softer tone Trump has struck on environmental regulation since
his Nov. 8 election. He has stepped back from casting climate change as a hoax,
signaled he might be willing to allow the United States to continue
participating in the Paris climate change deal aimed at lowering world carbon
emissions, and met with former Vice President Al Gore, a leading environmental
voice.
Pruitt's selection
brought a quick rebuke from Democrats.
"The head of
the EPA cannot be a stenographer for the lobbyists of polluters and Big
Oil," House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said of
Pruitt.
Trump's campaign
manager, Kellyanne Conway, brushed off the criticism, praising Pruitt's record
and telling reporters at Trump Tower: "We're very accustomed to the
naysayers and the critics."
TOUGH TALK
Trump talked tough
during the campaign about deporting all of the estimated 11 million illegal
immigrants in the United States and building a wall along the Mexican border.
But since the election he has softened his comments on deportation and referred
to some illegal immigrants as "terrific people."
Kelly would work in
tandem with Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump's pick for attorney general,
who is a leading advocate of cracking down on illegal immigration.
The former four-star
general would head a department in charge of securing borders against illegal
immigration, protecting the president, responding to natural disasters and
coordinating intelligence and counterterrorism.
He formerly headed
the Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military activities and
relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was a proponent of keeping
open the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Trump previously
picked retired Marine Corps General James Mattis as defense secretary and
retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as national security adviser.
Branstad has been an
eager trading partner with China, helping Iowa sell agricultural goods to the
Asian powerhouse. His choice came after Trump rattled the world's
second-largest economy with tough talk on trade and a telephone call with the
leader of Taiwan.
Trump has more key
appointments to make in coming days, including the high-profile job of
secretary of state. His team said former Republican presidential candidate Mitt
Romney, a fierce Trump critic during the campaign, is still under consideration
for a diplomatic job.
Aside from the
personnel announcements, Trump basked in being named Time magazine's
"person of the year," telling NBC's "Today" show,
"It's a great honor, it means a lot."
In an interview with
Time, Trump continued to take on corporate America, promising to bring down
drug prices and causing shares of U.S. pharmaceutical and biotech companies to
fall.
REUTERS
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