US President-elect Donald Trump has begun laying the groundwork to take office on January 20, 2017, gathering the most loyal advisers from his insurgent campaign and three of his children to plot his transition strategy.
Trump put Vice President-elect Mike Pence in charge of his White House transition team, while demoting his former transition chief, tarnished New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, to one of the six vice-chair posts.
Daughter Ivanka and sons Eric and Donald Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner accounted for a fourth of the 16-member executive committee, which was filled with politicians and advisers who stuck with Trump during his rollercoaster first run for public office.
Aides huddled in the real-estate mogul's Trump Tower in New York City to begin prioritising policy changes and considering cabinet picks and other candidates for the 4000 positions he will need to fill shortly after he takes the reins of the White House.
A member of the Trump transition team said there were more than 100 people now involved in developing "white papers" on what regulations to roll back after January 20.
Trump also moved on Friday to extricate himself from his sprawling business empire, which will be overseen by his three grown children on the transition team.
His company said it was vetting new business structures for the transfer of control to the three and the arrangement would not violate conflict-of-interest laws. But government ethics experts said the move would fall short of blind trust standards and was unlikely to prevent potential conflicts of interest.
Trump said that Pence - who has strong ties to Republican leaders in congress - will build on the work done under the leadership of Christie and has the mission of assembling "the most highly qualified group of successful leaders who will be able to implement our change agenda in Washington".
Reuters
