President-elect Trump lays out priorities for first 100 days in office
NEW YORK -- President-elect Donald Trump is planning another day of transition talks. He released a short video on YouTube late Monday, laying out priorities for the start of his term. He promised to focus on creating jobs, but he did not mention repealing Obamacare or building a wall on the Mexican border, two of his most popular campaign promises.
“I’ve asked my transition team to develop a list of executive actions we can take on day one to restore our laws and bring back our jobs. It’s about time,” Mr. Trump said in the video.
It outlined his plan for his first 100 days in office including withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, loosening restrictions on energy production and cutting regulations. He also promised a hard look at the visa program, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.
“On immigration, I will direct the Department of Labor to investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump will head to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the holiday weekend, but before that it appears he will continue to prepare for his White House transition behind closed doors while the media anxiously watches and waits. Mr. Trump has largely sidestepped the media since winning the election two weeks ago. In 2008, then-President-elect Obama held a press conference three days after his victory.
“The man works 18 hours a day, interviewing people, taking calls from across the world. And he will have a press conference in due course,” top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said.
Also passing through the skyscraper’s lobby were a parade of job-seekers. Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, a retired member of the Army National Guard, said he should be secretary of Veterans Affairs.
“I think I’m the best person, but there are some tremendous people out there,” Brown said.
Democratic Congresswoman and Iraq War veteran Tulsi Gabbard was invited by Mr. Trump to discuss foreign policy in Syria. She later wrote in a statement: “I never have and never will play politics with American and Syrian lives.”
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a potential pick for secretary of homeland security, was seen holding a document titled “Strategic Plan for First 365 Days.”
A leading critic of illegal immigration, his plan calls for adding “extreme vetting questions for high-risk aliens” and “reducing the intake of Syrian refugees to zero.”
Mr. Trump has called his victory the American version of Brexit, a historic vote by British citizens to withdraw from the European Union. On Twitter Monday night, the president-elect wrote that Nigel Farage, one of Brexit’s leaders, would make a great ambassador to the U.S. Britain’s prime minister quickly debunked the suggestion, saying the country already has an excellent U.S. ambassador.