NY businessman, veteran is Trump's pick for Army secretary

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

 

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday tapped another billionaire businessman for an administration job, naming Army veteran and fellow New Yorker Vincent Viola to be his secretary of the Army.

 

Trump had meetings planned with a group of businessmen and former U.S. government officials as he sought to fill other posts, including that of U.S. trade representative. He met with Robert Lighthizer, a former deputy U.S. trade representative in the Reagan administration, an official said.

 

Viola, Trump's choice to be the civilian head of the Army, is a West Point graduate who joins a list of former military men already chosen for the Cabinet. Trump's picks for defense secretary, homeland security secretary, national security adviser and deputy national security adviser are retired military.

 

In a written statement, Trump praised Viola, the son of Italian immigrants, as "living proof of the American dream" and someone who has a lengthy history of engagement with national security issues.

 

Viola grew up in Brooklyn, the first member of his family to attend college. He was trained as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer and served in the 101st Airborne Division. A lawyer, he started multiple businesses and bought the Florida Panthers hockey team for $250 million in 2013.

 

Trump announced his choice for Army secretary from Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida, estate where he was spending the holidays with his family and working on the transition. It came as electors in all 50 states formally elected him president, paving his way to take office on Jan. 20.

 

Viola would join a circle of wealthy businessmen Trump has chosen for the administration, including fast food executive Andy Puzder to lead the Labor Department, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross for Commerce, financier Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn as his top economic adviser.

 

More open posts remain. Trump was also meeting Monday with Thad Allen, the retired Coast Guard commandant who oversaw the federal response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

 

R. Donahue Peebles, board chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, also met with Trump. Peebles is also founder, chairman and CEO of Peebles Corp., a real estate development and investment company.

 

J. Christopher Reyes, co-chairman of Reyes Holdings, a Chicago-based beer and food distributor, also sat down with the president-elect.

 

Meanwhile, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was holding transition meetings in New York, including a foreign policy discussion with Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

 

On Sunday, some of Trump's closest advisers pushed back against Democrats' complaints that Russia had hacked into their private emails this election season in a bid to sow discord among their supporters and sway the election toward Republicans.

 

"Let's assume it's true," Reince Priebus, Trump's incoming chief of staff, said of Russian interference in the election. "There's no evidence that shows that the outcome of the election was changed because of a couple dozen John Podesta emails that were out there."

 

The number of leaked emails by Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, was actually closer to tens of thousands. And it'd be difficult to prove exactly what influenced voters.

 

Democrats said the hack was a personal attack and a threat to democracy.

 

"The emails were weaponized," said Donna Brazile, interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. The committee's emails were also hacked and publicly exposed. "The release of stolen, hacked emails caused a lot of confusion and of course it disrupted our daily campaign life."

 

Trump has previously deemed "ridiculous" the intelligence community's finding of Russian involvement.

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace and Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty in Washington contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-12-20

Well at least it wasn't Flynn the elder or younger.

Trump government by the 1% for the 1%.

No longer do they lurk in the shadows of super pacs.

Now that's a modern revolution.

First to fight second to none, we can do it, take your money... horah..

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Viola would join a circle of wealthy businessmen Trump has chosen for the administration, including fast food executive Andy Puzder to lead the Labor Department, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross for Commerce, financier Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn as his top economic adviser.

Meet the team that will be working on your behalf people. It must just warm the cuckolds of your heart. Can you just feel the love emanating from this lot. Oh well in 4 years time you will be able to spin the wheel of misfortune all over again with the same results. 

“If you tell people what they want to hear, you can be wrong indefinitely without penalty. This explains the careers of many pundits.”

Edited December 20, 20169 yr by elgordo38

And, the working class Trump voters hold out hope that that all these billionaires are going work hard for them.  It's almost funny, and so obvious to see, that right in front of America's eyes, Trump and this clan are going to make themselves even more rich using their positions in government.  And, the GOP is so afraid of losing power they are going to go along with it.  The GOP has an opportunity to push through their policies, so will cringe and defend Trumpty Dumpty.  Will it be criminal?  Probably, but no one will do anything about it.

Oh, for the love of God people. Get over it! You lost fair and square! Your side sent a Plow Horse to the Kentucky Derby.

Not 1 law has been passed, not 1 deal has been made, not 1 policy has been enacted yet the Hilliphiles are heating the tar and collecting the feathers. You should use them on the Democratic party.

President Trump is gearing up to run America as the largest corporation in the world with a security force that doesn't take crap from anybody.

No billionaire EVER became rich without creating millions of jobs. Those jobs will be in the U.S. where they belong so it stands to reason that Americans will be employed.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS should be worried that the free gravy train has left the station. Activist Groups in other countries SHOULD be worried that they can no longer get PAID with American tax dollars for whining about other countries.

The EU should pull their heads out of their collective butts and do something about the terrorists they keep letting into Europe AND funding with free everything. The U.S. is NOT going to fix it for you anymore.

The days of "Commies" and "Better Dead Than Red" are as long gone as most of your great grandparents that started that movement.

IF the Intelligence Community was as intelligent as they claim to be, they would be putting out feelers for young, smart, tech-savvy "Blackhat" and "Whitehat" hackers offering them free rein to hack any country they want except America (unless it's to close security holes) and provide them with $1 million a year salary and the best equipment available in the world.

 

There's a political joke going around that rings pretty true: "Why is it that those people telling me that Trump will be a bad president are the same people who told me that Obama would be a good one" 

Edited December 22, 20169 yr by mrwebb8825

19 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

 

No billionaire EVER became rich without creating millions of jobs. Those jobs will be in the U.S. where they belong so it stands to reason that Americans will be employed.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS should be worried that the free gravy train has left the station. Activist Groups in other countries SHOULD be worried that they can no longer get PAID

Steve Mnuchin?  And other hedge fund billionaires? And how about the billionaire children of billionaires?  They became rich by doing what exactly?

2 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Steve Mnuchin?  And other hedge fund billionaires? And how about the billionaire children of billionaires?  They became rich by doing what exactly?

selective quoting is the #1 response by people with no response.  hedge fund billionaires owned the company which gives jobs to people who do business to help other businesses that give jobs to people.  billionaire children with any savvy what-so-ever create more businesses that give jobs to people.

2 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

selective quoting is the #1 response by people with no response.  hedge fund billionaires owned the company which gives jobs to people who do business to help other businesses that give jobs to people.  billionaire children with any savvy what-so-ever create more businesses that give jobs to people.

Nothing else in your original quote qualifies or address this assertion in any way.  It's clear from your assertion abut hedge funds that you don't have a clue what a hedge fund is. These are not venture capital funds.

Do you know what a CDO is? Do you recall how the financial meltdown of 2008 put millions of people out of work because of corrupt practices by these hedge funds and bankers? How banks like Steve Mnuchin's, our future Treasury Secretary, dishonestly fabricated documents to hasten the foreclosure of thousands of homes? Do you have an clue or even an inkling about how corrupt the mortgage industry was and how Donald Trump aims to abolish Dodd Frank which will enable these wall street lowlifes to do the same thing all over again? Any awareness at all?

5 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

<snip>

 

There's a political joke going around that rings pretty true: "Why is it that those people telling me that Trump will be a bad president are the same people who told me that Obama would be a good one" 

Yes, very true. And they were right the first time, and will very likely be right again this time.