Trump to meet Romney as concerns voiced over top team

Donald Trump will today meet one of his most vocal Republican Party critics - Mitt Romney, as the President-elect continues to choose members of his top team.

"Will be working all weekend in choosing the great men and women who will be helping to make America great again!" Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

Mr Romney, the failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate, is rumoured for the Secretary of State role, alongside former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

If chosen, Mr Romney would bring a more orthodox Republican world view to foreign policy.

In 2012, he described Russia as the top geopolitical threat - in sharp contrast to Mr Trump, who has exchanged compliments with President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Romney had been a fierce and outspoken critic of his successor, describing him as a "phony" and a "fraud", and urging supporters to vote for anyone else but him while the party was choosing its nominee.

On Friday, Mr Trump picked controversial figure Jeff Sessions to be the US government's top lawyer.

The Alabama senator is known for inflammatory statements on immigration and alleged racist comments, and is an enthusiastic backer of Mr Trump's proposal to build a wall at the Mexico border.

As attorney general, Mr Sessions would be responsible for upholding civil rights amid anger over how white officers treat black suspects after a series of deadly police shootings.

Mr Trump, who is working on his transition from Trump Tower in New York, also selected retired general Mike Flynn as national security adviser and Kansas representative Mike Pompeo as CIA director.

Gen Flynn sees militant Islam as the biggest threat to global stability and critics say his comments are close to Islamophobia.

Mr Pompeo has been a harsh critic of the Obama administration. He slammed the Iran deal, which lifts some sanctions in return for Tehran cutting back its nuclear weapons programme.

Arch-conservative Mr Sessions, a 20-year congressional veteran, could face resistance as he seeks Senate confirmation.

Incoming Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he was "very concerned" about the appointment.

Mr Schumer said: "Given some of his past statements and his staunch opposition to immigration reform, I am very concerned about what he would do with the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice and want to hear what he has to say."

In 1986, Mr Sessions was nominated by then-President Ronald Reagan to be a federal judge, but was denied confirmation after allegations that he had made racist remarks while he was US attorney in Alabama.

He allegedly called an African-American prosecutor "boy" - a claim Mr Sessions denied.

He apparently admitted that, when told a white lawyer had been called a "disgrace to his race" for defending African-Americans, he responded by saying: "Well, maybe he is."

Mr Sessions has said he is against giving undocumented immigrants a path to US citizenship and in favour of reduced spending and a tough approach to fighting crime.

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