Donald Trump continues to move quickly on filling cabinet posts, but concerns are mounting among Republican foreign policy veterans that the president-elect is picking contentious political figures with little expertise for top foreign policy posts.
"They've got a quality gap they have to close," a former senior Republican foreign policy official told Politico. "And, if you pick someone like Kelly Ayotte, you're going to get people who think, 'You know what? [Trump] wasn't my guy, but he's president, he's making good personnel choices. I feel like I can go and work for her.'"
"None of that is happening."
Trump campaigned on the promise he would "drain" the politically corrupt establishment in Washington and seek talented experts with "new approaches, and practical ideas, rather than... those who have perfect resumes but very little to brag about except responsibility for a long history of failed policies and continued losses at war."
Reports allege he is deciding between former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former ambassador John Bolton as his secretary of state. The move, to some, is considered absurd since Giuliani lacks experience on the foreign policy front and has ties to foreign governments and Bolton's demeanor is combative.
"No one — literally not a single Republican I know, and I know a lot of Republicans — is talking to that tiny inner circle" in Trump Tower, one former George W. Bush administration foreign policy official told Politico. "That's because the Trump people don't want to talk."
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