The Trump Cabinet and the Lincoln Cabinet

We have the first "Promise Kept" of Donald Trump's presidency -- kept well before his January swearing-in. CARRIER JOBS TO STAY IN US. President-Elect Donald Trump and his team have reached an agreement with Carrier to keep about 1,000 manufacturing jobs in Indiana. You will have to look hard to find any other campaign promise fulfilled so quickly. Carrier confirmed the news, first reported by the New York Times, on Twitter : "We are pleased to have reached a deal with President-elect Trump & VP-elect Pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy. More details soon." Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday that he will travel to Indiana on Thursday to make an announcement about the deal : "I will be going to Indiana on Thursday to make a major announcement concerning Carrier A.C. staying in Indianapolis. Great deal for workers!" • In March, Carrier, one of the biggest air conditioning companies in the US, announced it would close its facility in Indianapolis and move operations to Mexico, eliminating 1,400 jobs. Trump frequently railed against the move and promised to force Carrier to keep its jobs in the US during his campaign. Trump told a crowd in Indianapolis in April : "Here's what's going to happen. I'll get a call from the head of Carrier and he'll say, 'Mr. President, we've decided to stay in the United States.' That's what's going to happen -- 100 percent." Donald Trump's swift action was as good as his word. The deal reportedly will keep a majority of the jobs in the state in exchange for business regulations to help all companies stay in the US and keep American workers employed, as well as an overhauling of the corporate tax code -- both these items were major Trump campaign promises. Trump and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, Indiana's governor, will announce the details of the agreement on Thursday at Carrier's Indianapolis plant, according to Trump's tweet and the NYT. • • • TRUMP ECONOMIC CABINET TEAM. Trump has at the same time put in place the Cabinet team that will carry out his business regulation and tax code reforms. Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross early Wednesday confirmed their nominations to become US Treasury Secretary and Commerce Department Secretary. Mnuchin and Ross both spoke on CNBC's "Squawk Box." Mnuchin, who served as the national finance chairman of Trump's campaign, told CNBC that tax reform will help drive economic growth at a sustained rate of 3% to 4%. He has never worked in government and has close ties to Hollywood and Wall Street. Mnuchin, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, founded the hedge fund Dune Capital Management and invested in the movie business. Ross is chairman and chief strategist of private-equity firm W.L. Ross & Co. He made his wealth, estimated at $2.9 billion, by buying and restructuring companies within the manufacturing and steel industries. Ross, a former banker, has invested in various industrial businesses throughout his career, including the coal industry. Trump promised during his presidential campaign to rebuild industries like coal and steel. The President-Elect has also promised to overturn or renegotiate trade deals he says have taken manufacturing jobs overseas. Ross served as an economic adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign. • • • A CABINET JOB FOR DR. CARSON. Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ben Carson has accepted Donald Trump's offer to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Carson, who grew out of poverty in Detroit to become one of the world’s foremost neurosurgeons, has expressed an interest in helping to rebuild the nation’s inner cities. But he has also been hesitant to join the administration, saying he believed he might be able to accomplish more outside of the federal government. Carson is involved with a group called My Faith Votes, which seeks to organize Christian voters, as well as several other outside groups. • • • TRUMP NAMES WOMEN TO CABINET POSTS. Trump has also announced the nominations of three women to his Cabinet. • He selected Betsy DeVos, a charter school and voucher advocate and GOP donor from Michigan, to be Education Secretary. DeVos becomes the second woman chosen to fill a spot in Trump's Cabinet. Trump said : "Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate. Under her leadership we will reform the US education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families." DeVos heads the advocacy group American Federation for Children. DeVos says : "The status quo in education is not acceptable. Together, we can work to make transformational change that ensures every student in America has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential." The 58-year-old DeVos is a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman. • Trump has also picked Elaine Chao to become Transportation Secretary. Chao, 63, was Labor Secretary under President George W. Bush and the first Asian American woman to serve in a President's Cabinet. She also is the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Chao came to the United States from Taiwan with her family at age 8. Her family settled in New York, where her father, James Si-Cheng Chao, became a wealthy shipping magnate. Chao received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard. She went on to become head of the Peace Corps and Deputy Secretary at the Transportation Department. She was head of the United Way of America and worked at a Washington think tank before becoming Labor Secretary, where her job was to protect the nation's workforce, including setting safety standards and addressing issues related to wages and retirement. She updated overtime regulations for "white-collar" workers and rules intended to force unions to disclose more details on their financial condition to members. • Earlier, Trump named South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the United Nations. • • • TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY TEAM. Trump has also put together a strong national security team. • Kansas Representative Mike Pompeo, 52, has been chosen as director of the CIA and is drawing widespread praise from the intelligence community, elected officials and news organizations as a strong conservative and national security expert who will be tough on terrorism. Even retired Air Force General Michael Hayden -- a Trump detractor who has directed the CIA and headed the NSA and is now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington -- said : "When I saw the choice, I was heartened. This is a serious man who takes these questions seriously and who's studied these questions on cybersecurity and other national security concerns. I'm heartened by the choice." California Representative Devin Nunes, Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, called Pompeo "one of the most respected voices in the House of Representatives on national security issues. Mike will undoubtedly develop a close working relationship with Congress in his new post." Elected in the tea party wave in 2010, Pompeo is graduate of West Point -- first in his class -- and Harvard Law School, where he edited the Harvard Law Review. He spent five years in the Army, serving as a cavalry officer, later working as a lawyer for the Washington powerhouse firm of Williams & Connolly. He then moved into business. Since coming to Congress, Pompeo has become a strong conservative voice, opposing Obamacare and the 16-day partial federal government shutdown in 2013 that cost American taxpayers $1.4 billion. But his expertise is in national security, as a member of the Intelligence Committee and the special House panel investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks. In June, Pompeo released a scathing supplement to the Benghazi committee's report on the assaults that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and two former Navy SEALs. Pompeo said that State Department officials -- including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and the Obama White House "misled the public about the events in Benghazi. Officials at the State Department, including Secretary Clinton, learned almost in real time that the attack in Benghazi was a terrorist attack. With the presidential election just 56 days away, rather than tell the American people the truth and increase the risk of losing an election, the administration told one story privately and a different story publicly. They publicly blamed the deaths on a video-inspired protest they knew had never occurred," he said. • The President-Elect also said that he would nominate Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and would name retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as his national security advisor. • Pompeo and Sessions must be confirmed by Congress, but not Flynn. • • • ET TU, ROMNEY??? Mitt Romney praised Donald Trump as the man who can steer the US toward a better future, but did not comment on reports that he is being considered for Secretary of State, after the two had dinner Tuesday in New Work City. Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was also there. Speaking to reporters after dining with Trump Tuesday night, Romney, the 2012 presidential nominee, said the two discussed world affairs during their "enlightening" conversations, but he did not say whether he was offered or discussed the Cabinet position. Romney commended the President-Elect's growing Cabinet and transition efforts : "I have to tell you, I've been impressed with what I've seen in the transition. The people he's selected as members of his Cabinet are solid, effective, capable people. I think you're going to see America continue to lead the world in this century, and what I've seen through these discussions I've had with President-Elect Trump, as well as what we've seen in his speech the night of his victory, as well as people he's selected as part of his transition, all of those combined give me increasing hope that President-Elect Trump is the very man that can lead us to that better future. I happen to think America's best days are ahead of us." Romney also applauded Trump's victory, noting : "By the way, it's not easy winning. I know that myself. He did something I tried to do and was unsuccessful in." • The big question is whether that was the apology that will make Romney acceptable to Trymp and to millions of Americans who are not ready to forgive Romney for saying the most vicious things any Republican said during Trump's campaign -- vicious remarks made AFTER Trump was nominated and the GOP was trying to find a way forward. I find it difficult to forgive Romney, although I recognize his excellent qualifications. Romney may be at the top of the list to be the nation's chief diplomat, but my heart is with others reportedly under consideration for the job -- Rudy Giuliani, former CIA Director David Petraeus and Tennessee Senator Bob Corker. When asked by reporters at Trump Tower if Romney would be nominated for the job, Trump replied: "Well, we're gonna see what happens." • One can see why Priebus was present at dinner on Tuesday evening. Priebus has long urged Trump and Romney to reconcile their differences, but even this summer, Romney told CNN that Trump's "trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America." While we could could understand Romney criticizing Trump's policies during the primaries and Romney endorsing another candidate during the primaries, attacking Trump after Trump won the nomination helped Hillary, not Trump. It was disloyal. It was stupid. Simply stated, Romney does not deserve any important office in the Trump administration, especially not the Secretary of State. • • • A LESSON FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Trump will take office without the mandate of a popular vote victory and with some elements in the country still seeing his elevation as a descent to racism and demagoguery. America also has some special challenges -- massive economic disruption, cultural incoherence, an uncertain place in the world and greedy-eyed enemies -- and they all make for an anxious time in America. • Now, imagine heading to the White House having won just less than 40% of the popular vote, and just 16 states. Imagine also that you had to be smuggled into Washington on a night train to keep assassins from killing you. To say that Abraham Lincoln came to Washington without a mandate is a real understatement. If you think it’s bad to have protests in the streets because you win, remember that entire states seceded from the Union because of Lincoln’s victory. Add to that Lincoln's lack of obvious qualifications to hold the office of President. He was a backwoods circuit-riding lawyer who served one term in Congress and whose career was as an attorney for the railroad. Lincoln certainly didn't fit the mold of the Founders. Lincoln had won the presidency in the same way he had won the Republican nomination -- he beat a crowded and divided field of candidates. Any of Lincoln’s rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination would have seemed much more suited to be President. Ohio Governor Salmon Chase looked like he was born to President. The Senators in the running -- William Seward of New York, Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Wade of Ohio and William Dayton of New Jersey -- all could claim political experience and success where Lincoln had only failure. Representative Edward Bates, Missouri congressman from a powerful political family, also made a potent claim as a border-state political power. Lincoln and his small team of Illinois homeboys beat them all at the Republican convention in Chicago. • In his letters to friends, Lincoln confided deep concerns about his readiness for office and the inadequacy of experience to the task in front of him. Not all of us are able to overcome such fears. Lincoln did. One would have expected that because of his humble origins, lack of pedigree and nearly accidental ascension to office, Lincoln would not fill his cabinet with his "betters." But Lincoln, as every schoolchild knows, was the "better" man. Cameron became secretary of war, Chase became the treasury secretary, Seward became secretary of state, Bates became attorney general and Dayton became Lincoln’s ambassador to France. Doris Kerns Goodwin dubbed them a “Team of Rivals” in her 2006 book. Huge egos and almost open contempt for their hayseed commander-in-chief threatened to turn the whole thing over on its head. But, Lincoln had the peace that comes from desperation. It would work because it had to. As Richard Brookheiser’s “Founder’s Son” expertly explains, Lincoln carried with him the weight of his duty to the Founders but also the inspiration of their genius for collaboration. Lincoln had the true humility that comes from understanding : he knew his real self, his own strengths and weaknesses. And because of that, he was able to risk being overshadowed by his own more famous and prestigious subordinates. • In the highly-charged world of modern politics, we don’t see much of that anymore. But from time to time, real leaders emerge. The best measure of them is whether they choose to surround themselves with rivals or simply human mirrors to reflect their own vanity. • • • Dear readers, as we have relied on the instincts and life-won wisdom of Donald Trump for a year and a half, we should continue to rely on him now. Look at those he has chosen so far to lead his programs. They are a remarkably varied and highly qualified group of people. Whoever he picks for Secretary of State -- even if it is Mitt Romney -- it may well be that Trump, like Lincoln, knows himself well enough to pick rivals to serve America in his and our name. It may also be that Trump the Dealmaker knows the old adage : "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." But, I like to think that President-Elect Trump has an immortal quote from Lincoln's first inaugural address in mind as his guiding principle : "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."