Washington: President-elect Donald Trump’s transition was in disarray on Wednesday, marked by firings, infighting and revelations that U.S. allies were blindly dialing in to Trump Tower to try to reach the soon-to-be-leader of the free world.
One week after Mr Trump scored an upset victory that took him by surprise, his team was improvising the most basic traditions of assuming power. That included working without official State Department briefing materials in his first conversations with foreign leaders.
Two officials who had been handling national security for the transition, former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Matthew Freedman, a lobbyist, were fired. Both were part of what officials called a purge orchestrated by Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law.
The dismissals followed the abrupt firing of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who was replaced as chief of the transition by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Mr Kushner, a transition official said, was systematically dismissing people like Mr Rogers who had ties with Mr Christie. As a federal prosecutor, Mr Christie had sent Mr Kushner’s father to jail.
Prominent U.S. allies were in the meantime scrambling to figure out how and when to contact Mr Trump. At times they have been patched through to him in his office tower with little warning, according to a diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations.
Mr Trump’s advisers, meanwhile, said the transition team was not suffering unusual setbacks. They were dealing with the same troubles that incoming presidents have faced for decades.
— By arrangement with the New York Times
