Bigger tent: Trump picks women for cabinet

PALM BEACH: Donald Trump began to broaden the base of his future cabinet on Wednesday, nominating two conservative women including a critic, after his earlier picks rewarded campaign loyalists. Trump’s nomination of South Carolina’s 44-year-old governor, Nikki Haley, as US ambassador to the United Nations will be seen as a sign he is ready to forgive some foes to raise a bigger tent. But his choice of wealthy activist Betsy DeVos, a champion of alternatives to local government schools, as education secretary, was another victory for social conservatives. Trump’s one-time presidential rival, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, appeared to be next in line for the nod -- reportedly as housing secretary -- after he posted on social media that an announcement was imminent.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2016.