Fox News, 15 Nov. 2016 – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the favorite to be secretary of state in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, a senior Trump transition official said Monday.
The official told the Associated Press there was no real competition for the job and that it was Giuliani’s if he wanted it. However, a second official cautioned that John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , remained in contention for the job.
A senior source told Fox News that Giuliani was being considered for the secretary of state job, but said the choice was not locked in. The source added that Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., one of Trump’s earliest Washington supporters, was getting a lot of say in the selection of officeholders.
Giuliani, a top Trump surrogate, said he ‘won’t be attorney general’ in a Trump administration at a Washington event sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. The former federal prosecutor had been seen as a top contender for the Justice Department post before Trump’s election last week.
Giuliani said he thought Bolton ‘would be a very good choice’ for secretary of state. But asked if there was anyone better, he replied with a mischievous smile: ‘Maybe me, I don’t know.’
During the event, Giuliani said that defeating the ISIS terror group was Trump’s top foreign policy priority, though he did not go into specifics of the president-elect’s plan. The former mayor also discussed Russia’s global power and influence.
‘Russia thinks it’s a military competitor, it really isn’t,’ Giuliani said. ‘It’s our unwillingness under Obama to even threaten the use of our military that makes Russia so powerful.’
Giuliani, 72, would be an out-of-box choice to lead the State Department due to his lack of extensive foreign policy experience. Known for his hard-line law-and-order views and brusque manner, he would set a very different tone than previous holders of the job, including Trump’s ex-rival Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.
His inauguration just 66 days away, however, Trump focused on building his team and speaking to foreign leaders. He remained sequestered in Trump Tower in New York.
Inexperienced on the international stage, the Republican president-elect spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone. His transition office said in a readout that ‘he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia.’ Trump has spoken in recent days with the leaders of China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada.
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 were not final.