WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump is tapping three nominees with deep ties to Washington and Wall Street to fill out his Cabinet, including former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary.
On Tuesday, Trump chose Georgia Rep. Tom Price to oversee the nation’s health care system, picking a fierce “Obamacare” critic who has championed efforts to privatize Medicare. And he selected another veteran Republican, Elaine Chao, to lead the Department of Transportation.
Mnuchin’s official announcement was expected as early as Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the decision who insisted on anonymity in order to confirm the pick ahead of time.
Mnuchin, 53, led Trump’s finance operations during the presidential campaign and become close with the president-elect and his family. But he has no government experience, which could prove a hurdle in navigating the tricky politics of Washington.
Price, picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services after more than a decade in Congress, helped craft House Speaker Paul Ryan’s plan to privatize Medicare — a position Trump opposed in the campaign. Chao, who was the first Asian-American woman to serve in a president’s Cabinet — she served under George W. Bush — is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The selections came as Trump spent Tuesday with advisers in his Manhattan skyscraper, racing through meetings with prospective administration hires as high-profile vacancies loom — none bigger than secretary of state.
At the same time, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein delivered $3.5 million to the state of Wisconsin to guarantee a recount. Stein, who is also pursuing recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan, has raised concerns that election results may have been hacked.
Trump has assailed the Green Party effort as a scam and separately has made unsupported claims of voter fraud in other states.
Meanwhile, Price’s selection raised questions about the incoming president’s commitment to Medicare, among other popular entitlement programs he repeatedly vowed to preserve before the election. The Georgia congressman led GOP efforts on Capitol Hill to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system, a change that if enacted would likely dramatically reduce government spending on the program that serves an estimated 57 million people.
Trump did not address Price’s position on Medicare in a statement released by his transition team. The team did not respond to subsequent questions about it.
“Chairman Price, a renowned physician, has earned a reputation for being a tireless problem solver and the go-to expert on health care policy, making him the ideal choice to serve in this capacity,” Trump said. “He is exceptionally qualified to shepherd our commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and bring affordable and accessible health care to every American.”
Like any Cabinet official, Price would carry out the wishes of the president. And a sweeping Medicare initiative would have to go through Congress with some Democratic support, which would be unlikely.
Chao is well-known in Washington, having led the Department of Labor for several years.
Her record as labor secretary suggests she would bring a light hand to safety enforcement as transportation secretary. Under Chao at Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration didn’t issue a single significant new safety regulation for four years. Mine safety inspectors were cut and inspections reduced.
Whether it’s integrating drones into the national airspace, deploying self-driving cars or “some other new technology, she’s not going to be especially inclined to second-guess the industry when they say that this will be safe,” said Thomas McGarity, a University of Texas law professor and author of Freedom to Harm, a book about the Labor Department that includes Chao’s tenure.
Like Price and Chao, Mnuchin would require Senate confirmation. If approved, Mnuchin would follow in the tradition of two previous treasury secretaries — Robert Rubin in the Clinton administration and Henry Paulson in George W. Bush’s. All had vast Wall Street experience gained from years spent working at powerhouse Goldman Sachs.
Yet unlike Rubin and Paulson and unlike President Barack Obama’s two treasury secretaries, Timothy Geithner and Jacob Lew, Mnuchin would bring no government experience to Treasury.
On Tuesday night, the president-elect summoned former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for dinner to discuss the secretary of state job for a second time. He also met with Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, having met with former CIA director David Petraeus the day before.
After his meeting, Corker told reporters, “The world needs to know that the secretary of state is someone who speaks fully for the president,” a possible jab at Romney, who aggressively opposed Trump’s candidacy.
Transition aides said Trump was likely at least a few days away from a decision.