PHOTO: Donald Trump with Kris Kobach, a possible Director of Homeland Security who has called for a national registry of Muslims, on Monday (Drew Angerer/Getty)(


I joined Emma Nelson and Monocle 24’s The Daily on Monday night to talk through Donald Trump’s “hard right” choices for his Cabinet so far and whether there will be some balancing in the near-future.

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Listen to Discussion from 3:07:

There really isn’t a coherent process because the Trump folks didn’t anticipate being in this position and because Trump himself is incoherent at the best of times.

You are also seeing the influence of Steve Bannon, the editor of Breitbart News who is now “chief strategist”. He has said that America should go to the dark side, learning from Dick Cheney, Darth Vader, and Satan. Whether or not he is serious about that statement, he is looking for people who share his views.

So will a counter-effort, probably including former Republican National Committee head and now Chief of Staff Reince Preibus, bring in a Secretary of State like Mitt Romney?

Because the Republican Party did not support Trump, does he have an Administration which is all on the fringes of the GOP?

That meeting with Romney gives Trump a bit of publicity that maybe he is not as off-the-wall as everyone thinks he may be. From Romney, it’s an olive branch — “I may have said you’re a phony, you’re a fraudster, but let’s see if we can work something out.”