Donald Trump Names Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon as Top Aides, Told Christie He Would Be Out of Race Last Year and More

President-elect Donald Trump's team is starting to take shape after he named his top two advisers on Sunday, but the pair seemingly hold opposing views from one another on the role of the Republican party and what the Trump White House should achieve.

Trump named Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee, as his chief of staff. Priebus, a Washington insider, represents the GOP establishment. Trump sent an opposing signal by tapping Steve Bannon, his combative campaign chief and former head of Breitbart News, as his chief strategist. However, the two advisers could help Trump achieve very different objectives: Priebus could help navigate early legislative wins in a Republican-led Congress, while Bannon keeps Trump's base enthusiastic about his presidency.

“I am thrilled to have my very successful team continue with me in leading our country,” Trump said in a statement. “Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again.”

Top Stories

Trump Names Priebus and Bannon as Top Aides: "President-elect Donald Trump made an overture to establishment Republicans on Sunday, tapping Reince Priebus as his chief of staff, but the reassuring gesture was tempered by his decision to name Steve Bannon, an insurgent firebrand, as his chief strategist." (Politico)

Trump Told Christie He Didn't Think He'd Last Past October 2015: "'Trump told Christie in 2015 that he didn't expect to make it past October—at which point he would endorse Christie, according to a Christie adviser who asked not to be named in order to speak about behind-the-scenes maneuvers,'" according to the book, written by CNN's Thomas Lake with reporting from Jodi Enda, Susan Baer and CNN's political team. (CNN)

Donald Trump Plans to Immediately Deport 2 Million to 3 Million Undocumented Immigrants: “'What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,' Trump told '60 Minutes' correspondent Lesley Stahl." (The Washington Post)

Harsher Security Tactics? Obama Left Door Ajar, and Donald Trump Is Knocking: "As a presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump vowed to refill the cells of the Guantánamo Bay prison and said American terrorism suspects should be sent there for military prosecution. He called for targeting mosques for surveillance, escalating airstrikes aimed at terrorists and taking out their civilian family members, and bringing back waterboarding and a 'hell of a lot worse' — not only because 'torture works,' but because even 'if it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway.'" (The New York Times)

From the Twitterverse

Still on a victory high:

Today's Numbers

• Siemens to buy U.S. software maker Mentor for $4.5 billion.
• Mark Zuckerberg claims 99 percent of Facebook posts are “authentic,” denies fake news there influenced election.
• Roy Cooper holds thin lead over Gov. Pat McCrory in North Carolina: 2,281,155 votes to 2,276,383.
• The gender gap on Election Day was 11 percentage points for Trump (53-42), similar to the gender gap for Bill Clinton in 1996 and Barack Obama in 2012, and in line with the gender breakdown of Republican voters.

Quote of the Day

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean on his the possibility of taking the DNC chair once again:

“So, you know, I think I know how to do this. But, you know, this is not something — I've already done this once. This is not something I have to do. This is not something I’m going to push people out of the way for.”

Allen McDuffee is a politics and policy reporter, investigative journalist, blogger and podcast host. He has written for The Atlantic, Wired and The Washington Post. Follow him on Twitter: @AllenMcDuffee

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons