Donald Trump meets with Mike Pence, is set to review names for next appointment announcement

By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 15, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump will meet Tuesday with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is leading the transition team, to review the names of finalists for key administration positions and announcements are coming soon, said a transition team advisor.

Jason Miller, a spokesman for the transition team, told reporters at Trump Tower in New York that the decision process on appointments had reached a “serious” phase.

“If the Vice President-elect is getting together with the President-elect to discuss names, then I would say that it’s serious, obviously,” Mr. Miller said, accord to a pool report.

“Vice President-elect Mike Pence will be here tomorrow meeting with President-elect Trump. They’ll be reviewing a number of names. There has been a lot of work put in by both the Vice President-elect and a number of members of the transition team,” he said.

Mr. Miller declined to speculate about the time table for making announcements.

“Obviously, inauguration day is not getting further away. And people need to get going. This is an absolute top priority understood by the President-elect and the Vice President-elect,” Mr. Miller said.

He downplayed reports that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton were finalists for secretary of state in the Trump administration.

“You can’t believe everything you read,” Mr. Miller said. “I don’t want to play the speculation game as far as names. There’s a thorough, detailed process that the Vice President-elect and the transition team are going through and the President-elect will make the decision and let us know.”

Mr. Trump so far has announced two appointment announcements: Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for White House chief of staff and former Trump campaign chairman Stephen K. Bannon for White House chief political strategist and senior adviser.

• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.