WASHINGTON (AP) —
President-elect Donald Trump is considering a woman to run the Republican
Party and an openly gay man to represent the U.S. at the United Nations,
moves that would inject diversity into a Trump team.
The incoming
president is considering Richard Grenell as United States ambassador to
the United Nations. If picked and ultimately confirmed by the Senate, he
would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign
policy post. Grenell previously served as U.S. spokesman at the U.N. under
former President George W. Bush's administration.
At the same time,
Trump is weighing whether to select Michigan GOP chairwoman Ronna Romney
McDaniel, a niece of Trump critic and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt
Romney. She would be the first woman in decades to run the Republican
National Committee.
"I'll be
interested in whatever Mr. Trump wants," McDaniel told The Associated
Press on Monday, adding that she was planning to seek the Michigan GOP
chairmanship again.
Appointing
McDaniel to run the GOP's political arm could be an effort to help the
party heal the anger after a campaign in which Trump demeaned women. The
appointment of Grenell could begin to ease concerns by the gay community
about Vice President-elect Mike Pence's positions on same-sex marriage
during his time as Indiana governor.
The personnel
moves under consideration were confirmed by people with direct knowledge
of Trump's thinking who were not authorized to publicly disclose private
discussions. They stressed that the decisions are not final.
Internal
deliberations about staffing come a day after Trump made overtures to
warring Republican circles by appointing RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as
his White House chief of staff and Breitbart News executive Stephen Bannon
as chief strategist and senior counselor.
The two men had
made up the president-elect's chief of staff shortlist, and while Priebus
received that job, Bannon is expected to wield significant clout. Trump
gave top billing to the former media executive, who led a website that
appealed to the so-called "alt-right" — a movement often associated with
efforts on the far right to preserve "white identity," oppose
multiculturalism and defend "Western values."
Priebus on Monday
defended the media mogul, saying the two made an effective pair as they
steered Trump past Democrat Hillary Clinton and toward the presidency. He
sought to distance Bannon from the incendiary headlines on his website,
saying they were written by unspecified others.
"Together, we've
been able to manage a lot of the decision making in regard to the
campaign," Priebus told NBC's "Today." ''It's worked very, very well."
Trump's hires
were, at first glance, contradictory, though they fit a pattern of the
celebrity businessman creating a veritable Rorschach test that allowed his
supporters to see what they wanted. Priebus, who lashed the RNC to Trump
this summer despite some intraparty objections, is a GOP operative with
deep expertise of the Washington establishment that Trump has vowed to
shake up. He has close ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow
Wisconsinite.
Bannon,
meanwhile, helped transform the Breitbart News site into the leading
mouthpiece of the party's anti-establishment wing, which helped fuel the
businessman's political rise. Ryan has been one of his most frequent
targets.
Neither Priebus
nor Bannon brings policy experience to the White House. Chiefs of staff in
particular play a significant role in policymaking, serving as a liaison
to Cabinet agencies and deciding what information makes it to the
president's desk. They're often one of the last people in the room with
the president as major decisions are made.
In announcing the
appointments, Trump said Priebus and Bannon would work as "equal partners"
— effectively creating two power centers in the West Wing. The arrangement
is risky and could leave ambiguity over who makes final decisions.
Trump has long
encouraged rivalries, both in business and in his presidential campaign.
He cycled through three campaign managers during his White House run,
creating a web of competing alliances among staffers.
Priebus is a
traditional choice, one meant as an olive branch to the Republicans who
control both houses of Congress as Trump looks to pass his legislative
agenda.
The Bannon pick,
however, is controversial.
Bannon, who
became campaign CEO in August, pushed Trump to adopt more populist
rhetoric and paint rival Hillary Clinton as part of a global conspiracy
made up of the political, financial and media elite, bankers bent on
oppressing the country's working people — a message that carried Trump to
the White House but to some, carried anti-Semitic undertones.
An ex-wife of
Bannon said he expressed fear of Jews when the two battled over sending
their daughters to private school nearly a decade ago, according to court
papers reviewed this summer by The Associated Press. In a sworn court
declaration following their divorce, Mary Louise Piccard said her
ex-husband had objected to sending their twin daughters to an elite Los
Angeles academy because he "didn't want the girls going to school with
Jews."
A spokeswoman for
Bannon denied he made those statements.