Donald Trump is about to become arguably the most powerful man on earth, but what will that mean to the sport he is so invested in?

After being sworn in as President of the United States in January, Trump will wield enormous influence in so many matters of public policy and private business. He will occupy a platform that promises to raise golf’s profile, given his history with the sport and his love of the game.

But will that be good for golf? Trump’s critics don’t think so.

A headline from the Washington Post’s editorial page (Nov. 3): “Don’t like Trump’s piggish prejudice? Blame the world of golf: Sexism, racism and undocumented workers thrive on the green.”

From the pages of USA Today (Nov. 16): “A national championship hosted by the President of the United States? Isn’t that the stuff of our dreams? Actually, with this man, it’s more like a nightmare.”

From the Huffington Post (July 8): “Once again, the USGA puts profit over principle. And where’s the LPGA? Silent as usual, even though the Donald has disparaged women regularly, calling them bimbos, dogs, fat pigs and crazy. Nothing new here – the good girls of golf have always been afraid to cross the guys.”

Donald Trump is passionate about golf. He’s a 3 handicap, a club champion at more than one venue. He owns 17 world class golf destinations, including Trump Doral, Trump Turnberry and Trump Doonbeg. He was host to one of the PGA Tour’s World Golf Championships at Doral, though he’s losing that next year, and he was once host to a highly successful LPGA event in West Palm Beach, Fla., which paid out the top winner’s check in the women’s game.

LPGA veteran Natalie Gulbis spoke in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July. Two-time major championship winner Cristie Kerr backs Trump as a great supporter of the women’s game.

But Trump’s misogynistic comments about women, his “killers and rapists” comments about Mexican and other immigrants and his campaign call for a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” have led critics to make unflattering connections between Trump and the culture of golf.

“Golf, at its worst, is Donald Trump,” Michael Peppard wrote in the Washington Post last month.

Golf’s ruling bodies continued to find themselves in uncomfortable positions in their partnerships with Trump over this past year.

Through the year, pressure mounted on the USGA to move the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open away from Trump Bedminster in New Jersey, even after the USGA announced this summer that it continues to plan to stage the event there.

“During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump has made some remarks that are at odds with our belief that golf should be welcoming and inclusive for all,” the USGA said in a statement in July. “We have reiterated that we do not share his views, and that is still true.

“It is important to note that Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster, has fully complied with our standing anti-discriminatory member policy, which we will continue to require of all championship sites.”

Trump was host to a major championship in women’s golf in 2015, with the Ricoh Women’s British Open played at Trump Turnberry in Scotland. It was a large success, with women appreciative of the chance to play another classic venue in the men’s rotation. His Trump Bedminster club in New Jersey is scheduled to host the U.S. Women’s Open next year and also to host the PGA Championship in 2022. Trump National in Potomac Falls, Va., is scheduled to host the Senior PGA Championship next year.

This fall, three U.S. senators sent a joint letter to the USGA urging the governing body to move the U.S. Women’s Open away from Trump Bedminster, citing Trump for a “pattern of degrading and dehumanizing women.”

Earlier this year, Jeffrey Sammons, Cedrick Smith and Calvin Sinnette publicly renounced their relationships with the USGA in protest of the governing body’s partnership with Trump. They were all involved in African-American historical golf projects at the USGA museum.

Back in June, the PGA Tour made public its plans to move its World Golf Championship out of Trump Doral. Ironically, the Tour announced it was moving the event to Mexico City. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said it was “fundamentally a sponsorship issue.”

Trump called it a “sad day” and said “the PGA Tour has put profit ahead of thousands of American jobs, millions of dollars in revenues for local communities ... This decision only further embodies the very reason I am running for President of the United States.”

Golf waits to see what Trump will mean to the sport once he’s in office.</s>NEW YORK, Dec. 22 (UPI) — Donald Trump‘s transition team on Thursday announced the president-elect picked campaign manager Kellyanne Conway to serve as counselor to the president.

Conway, the first female campaign manager to win a presidential race, led Trump’s team in the final three months before the election. The top White House role will allow Conway to give Trump input on virtually any decision he makes.

“In her position, Conway will continue her role as a close adviser to the president and will work with senior leadership to effectively message and execute the administration’s legislative priorities and actions,” Trump transition team said in a statement. “She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message.”

Conway, who is a veteran pollster and political consultant, said she was “humbled and honored to play a role in helping transform the movement he has led into a real agenda of actions and results.”

White House counselors can be very influential on a president depending on the shared rapport. Counselors can share input on nearly any issue, including domestic and foreign policy, unlike other advisers who may have a more narrow focus, such as economic advisers.

President Barack Obama currently does not have a counselor to the president. He also didn’t fill the post when he first took office, but in 2014 he named John Podesta to the role. Podesta left the administration in 2015 to serve as the chairman of Hillary Clinton‘s 2016 presidential campaign.</s>President-elect Donald Trump announced his senior communications team Thursday and it is 75 percent male and 100 percent white. While that might at first seem like a coincidence rather than outright discrimination, the four-person team is actually far more diverse than many of Trump's other teams:

White men head all four of the most powerful departments — defense, justice, treasury, and state — for the first time in 24 years. Yahoo News writes that even as "the population of the United States is more diverse than ever," with white Americans set to be the minority in just a few short decades, "[Trump's] proposed administration looks poised to become one of the whitest White Houses in recent history."

Newt Gingrich has sounded the alarm, stressing to the transition team that "there has to be more Hispanics in the administration." No Cabinet position so far has gone to a Latino, the first time that's happened since before 1988. Hispanics are the nation's largest minority group.

So far, Trump's Cabinet is 23 percent female and 18 percent people of color. Nationwide, many states are already majority people of color; women make up 50.8 percent of the U.S. population.

Three Cabinet positions have yet to be filled. Jeva Lange</s>PALM BEACH, Fla.: Denouncing the deadly attack on a Christmas market in Germany, President-elect Donald Trump renewed his vow to stop radical terror groups and appeared to suggest a willingness to move ahead with his campaign pledge to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants from coming to the United States.

Trump proposed the Muslim ban during the Republican primary campaign, drawing sharp criticism from both parties. During the general election, he shifted his rhetoric to focus on temporarily halting immigration from an unspecified list of countries with ties to terrorism, though he did not disavow the Muslim ban, which is still prominently displayed on his campaign website.

The president-elect, when asked Wednesday if the attack in Berlin would cause him to evaluate the proposed ban or a possible registry of Muslims in the United States, said, “You know my plans. All along, I’ve been proven to be right, 100 percent correct.”

“What’s happening is disgraceful,” said Trump, who deemed the violence “an attack on humanity,” and added, “it’s got to be stopped.”

A transition spokesman said later Wednesday that Trump’s plans “might upset those with their heads stuck in the politically correct sand.”

“President-elect Trump has been clear that we will suspend admission of those from countries with high terrorism rates and apply a strict vetting procedure for those seeking entry in order to protect American lives,” spokesman Jason Miller said. But transition officials did not comment on whether Trump could also push for the overarching ban on Muslims.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 injured. On Wednesday, German officials launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a “violent and armed” Tunisian man suspected in the killings.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday that Trump is “the guy out there saying we need extreme vetting policies, that we need to have a better system vis a vis countries that train, harbor and export terrorists.”

“He said during the campaign long after he originally proposed that that this would be more strictly tied to countries where we know they have a history of terrorism and that this is not a complete ban,” she added.

Trump’s transition team announced Thursday that Conway is headed to the White House, where she’ll serve as counselor to the president.

Trump, who addressed journalists for less than two minutes Wednesday outside his palatial South Florida estate, said he has not spoken to President Barack Obama since the attack. Aides said that he received the classified presidential daily intelligence briefing on Wednesday and met with incoming White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump was spending the final days of 2016 huddled with advisers at Mar-a-Lago, his grand resort in Palm Beach. He also met Wednesday with the heads of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, companies with high-dollar government contracts that Trump has criticized. Boeing has a contract to build two new Air Force One planes, and Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 fighter jet.

Trump said of his meeting with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, “It’s a little bit of a dance. We’re trying to get costs down.”

Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, said his company is committed to working with Trump to lower costs on the Air Force One project.

The president-elect was also finalizing his senior White House team, wrapping up a decision-making process that has been dogged by infighting among rival factions within Trump’s organization.

Conway, a pollster who served as Trump’s third campaign manager, is widely credited with helping guide him to victory. She also is a frequent guest on television news programs. Conway “will continue her role as a close adviser to the president and will work with senior leadership” in the White House “to effectively message and execute the administration’s legislative priorities and actions,” the president-elect’s transition team said in a statement.

Trump praised Conway as “a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda” who has “amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message.”

But some of Trump’s original campaign aides have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favor of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Among the early advisers who will not be joining Trump at the White House is Corey Lewandowski, his combative first campaign manager. But the operative won’t be far away — Lewandowski announced plans to start a political consulting firm with offices just a block away from the White House.

Lewandowski oversaw Trump’s campaign through the Republican primaries, but he clashed with the candidate’s family and was fired. Still, he remained close to Trump, talking with him frequently and showing up occasionally at the president-elect’s offices during the transition.

Lewandowski said he was offered “multiple opportunities” to join the administration, though people with knowledge of the process said those opportunities did not include senior positions in the West Wing.

The president-elect announced plans to hire economist Peter Navarro to run a new National Trade Council that will be housed in the White House. Navarro, author of “Death by China,” has endorsed a hard-line approach toward relations with Beijing.

In a statement, the Trump transition team said the creation of the council “demonstrates the president-elect’s determination to make American manufacturing great again.”

Trump also named billionaire investor Carl Icahn as an adviser on regulatory reform, though the transition team said Icahn would not be serving as a federal government employee.

Transition officials said additional announcements on White House jobs were expected this week.

Meanwhile, Democrats were looking ahead to confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Steven Mnuchin, his nominee to lead the Treasury Department. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown sent Mnuchin a letter Wednesday asking him to explain his involvement with OneWest, a bank that critics have called a “foreclosure machine.”

Follow Lemire at www.twitter.com/JonLemire and Pace at www.twitter.com/jpaceDC</s>U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named his former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway to serve as counselor to the president, his transition team said in a statement.Conway, 49, currently a senior adviser on Trump's transition team, is widely credited with helping him bring a more disciplined approach to campaigning that helped him win the November presidential election.

In her new post, Conway will play a key advisory role in the White House when Trump takes office on Jan. 20, helping to manage the New York businessman's messaging and legislative priorities, according to the statement.

Trump said Conway "played a crucial role in my victory. She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message."

In an interview with ABC News shortly after the announcement, Conway said Trump was finalizing his communications staff and was preparing to announce his choices for White House press secretary and related posts soon but gave no other details.

Asked when Trump would hold his first news conference after canceling one earlier this month, Conway avoided directly answering the question. Trump has held several rallies since winning the Nov. 8 election but has not taken formal questions from reporters.

Speaking on ABC's "Good Morning America" program, Conway pointed to Trump's time spent forming his Cabinet. "He's been very busy doing that," she said.</s>PALM BEACH, Fla. — Denouncing the deadly attack on a Christmas market in Germany, President-elect Donald Trump renewed his vow to stop radical terror groups and appeared to suggest a willingness to move ahead with his campaign pledge to ban temporarily Muslim immigrants from coming to the United States.

Trump proposed the Muslim ban during the Republican primary campaign, drawing sharp criticism from both parties. During the general election, he shifted his rhetoric to focus on temporarily halting immigration from an unspecified list of countries with ties to terrorism, though he did not disavow the Muslim ban, which is still prominently displayed on his campaign website.

The president-elect, when asked Wednesday if the attack in Berlin would cause him to evaluate the proposed ban or a possible registry of Muslims in the United States, said “You know my plans. All along, I’ve been proven to be right, 100 percent correct.”

“What’s happening is disgraceful,” said Trump, who deemed the violence “an attack on humanity, and it’s got to be stopped.”

A transition spokesman said later Wednesday that Trump’s plans “might upset those with their heads stuck in the politically correct sand.”

“President-elect Trump has been clear that we will suspend admission of those from countries with high terrorism rates and apply a strict vetting procedure for those seeking entry in order to protect American lives,” spokesman Jason Miller said. But transition officials did not comment on whether Trump could also push for the overarching ban on Muslims.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 injured. On Wednesday, German officials launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a “violent and armed” Tunisian man suspected in the killings.

Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said during an interview with ABC on Thursday morning that Trump is “the guy out there saying we need extreme vetting policies, that we need to have a better system vis a vis countries that train, harbor and export terrorists.”

“He said during the campaign long after he originally proposed that that this would be more strictly tied to countries where we know they have a history of terrorism and that this is not a complete ban,” she added.

Trump’s transition team announced Thursday that Conway is headed to the White House, where she’ll serve as counselor to the president.

Trump, who addressed reporters for less than two minutes Wednesday outside his palatial South Florida estate, said he has not spoken to President Barack Obama since the attack. Aides said that he received the classified presidential daily intelligence briefing on Wednesday and met with incoming White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump was spending the final days of 2016 huddled with advisers at Mar-a-Lago, his grand resort in Palm Beach. He also met Wednesday with the heads of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, companies with high-dollar government contracts that Trump has criticized. Boeing has a contract to build two new Air Force One planes and Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 fighter jet.

Trump said of his meeting with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, “It’s a little bit of a dance. We’re trying to get costs down.”

Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, said his company was committed to working with Trump to lower costs on the Air Force One project.

The president-elect was also finalizing his senior White House team, wrapping up a decision-making process that has been dogged by infighting among rival factions within Trump’s organization.

Conway, a pollster who served as Trump’s third campaign manager, is widely credited with helping guide him to victory. She is also a frequent guest on television news programs.

Conway “will continue her role as a close adviser to the president and will work with senior leadership” in the White House “to effectively message and execute the administration’s legislative priorities and actions,” the president-elect’s transition team said in a statement.

Trump praised Conway as “a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda” who has “amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message.”

But some of Trump’s original campaign aides have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favor of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Among the early advisers who will not be joining Trump at the White House is Corey Lewandowski, his combative first campaign manager. But the operative won’t be far away — Lewandowski announced plans to start a political consulting firm with offices just a block away from the White House.

Lewandowski oversaw Trump’s campaign through the Republican primaries, but he clashed with the candidate’s family and was fired. Still, he remained close to Trump, talking with him frequently and showing up occasionally at the president-elect’s offices during the transition.

Lewandowski said he was offered “multiple opportunities” to join the administration, though people with knowledge of the process said those opportunities did not include senior positions in the West Wing.

The president-elect announced plans to hire economist Peter Navarro to run a new National Trade Council that will be housed in the White House. Navarro, author of “Death by China,” has endorsed a hard line approach toward relations with Beijing.

In a statement, the Trump transition team said the creation of the council “demonstrates the president-elect’s determination to make American manufacturing great again.”

Trump also named billionaire investor Carl Icahn as an adviser on regulatory reform, though the transition team said Icahn would not be serving as a federal government employee.

Transition officials said additional announcements on White House jobs were expected this week.

Meanwhile, Democrats were looking ahead to confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Steve Mnuchin, his nominee to lead the Treasury Department. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown sent Mnuchin a letter Wednesday asking him to explain his involvement with OneWest, a bank that critics have called a “foreclosure machine.”</s>PALM BEACH, Fla. — Denouncing the deadly attack on a Christmas market in Germany, President-elect Donald Trump renewed his vow to stop radical terror groups and appeared to suggest a willingness to move ahead with his campaign pledge to ban temporarily Muslim immigrants from coming to the United States.

Trump proposed the Muslim ban during the Republican primary campaign, drawing sharp criticism from both parties. During the general election, he shifted his rhetoric to focus on temporarily halting immigration from an unspecified list of countries with ties to terrorism, though he did not disavow the Muslim ban, which is still prominently displayed on his campaign website.

The president-elect, when asked Wednesday if the attack in Berlin would cause him to evaluate the proposed ban or a possible registry of Muslims in the United States, said “You know my plans. All along, I’ve been proven to be right, 100 per cent correct.”

“What’s happening is disgraceful,” said Trump, who deemed the violence “an attack on humanity, and it’s got to be stopped.”

A transition spokesman said later Wednesday that Trump’s plans “might upset those with their heads stuck in the politically correct sand.”

“President-elect Trump has been clear that we will suspend admission of those from countries with high terrorism rates and apply a strict vetting procedure for those seeking entry in order to protect American lives,” spokesman Jason Miller said. But transition officials did not comment on whether Trump could also push for the overarching ban on Muslims.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack in Berlin that left 12 people dead and 48 injured. On Wednesday, German officials launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a “violent and armed” Tunisian man suspected in the killings.

Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said during an interview with ABC on Thursday morning that Trump is “the guy out there saying we need extreme vetting policies, that we need to have a better system vis a vis countries that train, harbour and export terrorists.”

“He said during the campaign long after he originally proposed that that this would be more strictly tied to countries where we know they have a history of terrorism and that this is not a complete ban,” she added.

Trump’s transition team announced Thursday that Conway is headed to the White House, where she’ll serve as counsellor to the president.

Trump, who addressed reporters for less than two minutes Wednesday outside his palatial South Florida estate, said he has not spoken to President Barack Obama since the attack. Aides said that he received the classified presidential daily intelligence briefing on Wednesday and met with incoming White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump was spending the final days of 2016 huddled with advisers at Mar-a-Lago, his grand resort in Palm Beach. He also met Wednesday with the heads of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, companies with high-dollar government contracts that Trump has criticized. Boeing has a contract to build two new Air Force One planes and Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 fighter jet.

Trump said of his meeting with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, “It’s a little bit of a dance. We’re trying to get costs down.”

Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, said his company was committed to working with Trump to lower costs on the Air Force One project.

The president-elect was also finalizing his senior White House team, wrapping up a decision-making process that has been dogged by infighting among rival factions within Trump’s organization.

Conway, a pollster who served as Trump’s third campaign manager, is widely credited with helping guide him to victory. She is also a frequent guest on television news programs.

Conway “will continue her role as a close adviser to the president and will work with senior leadership” in the White House “to effectively message and execute the administration’s legislative priorities and actions,” the president-elect’s transition team said in a statement.

Trump praised Conway as “a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda” who has “amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message.”

But some of Trump’s original campaign aides have expressed concern to the president-elect himself that they are getting boxed out in favour of those more closely aligned with incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Among the early advisers who will not be joining Trump at the White House is Corey Lewandowski, his combative first campaign manager. But the operative won’t be far away — Lewandowski announced plans to start a political consulting firm with offices just a block away from the White House.

Lewandowski oversaw Trump’s campaign through the Republican primaries, but he clashed with the candidate’s family and was fired. Still, he remained close to Trump, talking with him frequently and showing up occasionally at the president-elect’s offices during the transition.

Lewandowski said he was offered “multiple opportunities” to join the administration, though people with knowledge of the process said those opportunities did not include senior positions in the West Wing.

The president-elect announced plans to hire economist Peter Navarro to run a new National Trade Council that will be housed in the White House. Navarro, author of “Death by China,” has endorsed a hard line approach toward relations with Beijing.

In a statement, the Trump transition team said the creation of the council “demonstrates the president-elect’s determination to make American manufacturing great again.”

Trump also named billionaire investor Carl Icahn as an adviser on regulatory reform, though the transition team said Icahn would not be serving as a federal government employee.

Transition officials said additional announcements on White House jobs were expected this week.

Meanwhile, Democrats were looking ahead to confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Steve Mnuchin, his nominee to lead the Treasury Department. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown sent Mnuchin a letter Wednesday asking him to explain his involvement with OneWest, a bank that critics have called a “foreclosure machine.”</s>Just a few weeks until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and media folks are wondering who will be performing. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s newly named Counselor to the President, says performers have been lined up, but she’s not naming names.

So far, 16-year-old former America’s Got Talent contestant Jackie Evancho has been announced to sing the National Anthem for the January 20 inauguration. Andrea Bocelli had been reported to perform, but the latest iteration of that report has him backing out. Earlier, quickly dismissed names in the rumor mill included Elton John. And much was made in the media recently of Kanye West’s visit with our next POTUS at Trump Tower, though the rapper joked he was just there to have his picture taken with Trump.

“I won’t,” Conway answered when ABC News’ David Muir asked on Good Morning America if she’d name names of confirmed performers. But, she added, tellingly, “I can tell you that this is not the Academy Awards. It’s the inauguration for the people, the way that it’s been the election for the people.”

She also told Muir: “No one put me in charge of the entertainment. I’m a little bit too geeky for that.”

Watch the GMA interview above, with the inauguration talk starting at the 3:43 mark.</s>US president-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named his former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway to serve as counsellor to the president, his transition team said in a statement.

Conway (49), who is currently a senior adviser on Trump’s transition team, is widely credited with helping him bring the more disciplined approach to campaigning that helped him win the November presidential election.

In her new post, Conway will play a key advisory role in the White House when Trump takes office on January 20th, helping to manage the New York businessman’s messaging and legislative priorities, according to the statement.

Mr Trump said Ms Conway “played a crucial role in my victory.

“She is a tireless and tenacious advocate of my agenda and has amazing insights on how to effectively communicate our message.”

In an interview with ABC News shortly after the announcement, Ms Conway said Mr Trump was finalising his communications staff and was preparing to announce his choices for White House press secretary and related posts soon.

Asked when Mr Trump would hold his first news conference after cancelling a planned conference earlier this month, Ms Conway avoided directly answering the question.

Mr Trump has held several rallies since winning the November 8th election but has not taken formal questions from reporters.

Speaking about the issue on ABC’s Good Morning America programme, Ms Conway pointed to the time Mr Trump’s has spent forming his cabinet.

“He’s been very busy doing that,” she said.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly called for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” until the rest of the world “comes to its senses” regarding nuclear weapons.

His comments on Twitter came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said strengthening his country’s nuclear capabilities should be a chief military objective in the coming year. The president-elect’s statement also followed his meetings a day earlier with top Pentagon officials and defense contractors.

Trump, who is spending the holidays at his palatial private club in Florida, did not expand on the actions he wants the U.S. to take or say why he raised the issue Thursday.

Spokesman Jason Miller said the president-elect was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation “particularly to and among terrorist organizations and unstable and rogue regimes.” Miller said Trump sees modernizing the nation’s deterrent capability “as a vital way to pursue peace through strength.”

If Trump were to seek an expansion of the nuclear stockpiles, it would mark a sharp shift in U.S. national security policy. President Barack Obama has made nuclear non-proliferation a centerpiece of his agenda, calling in 2009 for the U.S. to lead efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons — a goal he acknowledged would not be accomplished quickly or easily.

Still, the U.S. has been moving forward on plans to upgrade its aging nuclear arsenal. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the Pentagon planned to spend $108 billion over the next five years to sustain and improve its nuclear force.

The U.S. and Russia hold the vast majority of the world’s nuclear weapons. In 2010, the two countries signed the New START treaty capping the number of nuclear warheads and missile launchers each country can possess. The agreement is in effect until 2021 and can be extended for another five years.

Thomas Karako, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the last comprehensive review of the U.S. nuclear force — which was conducted during Obama’s first term — occurred against the backdrop of efforts to reset relations between Washington and Moscow. The relationship has since deteriorated, with Obama and Putin clashing over Russia’s provocations in Ukraine and support for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“We need to candidly asses what the environment is and what the prospects are for Russian compliance with current treaties,” Karako said.

Trump has repeatedly called for closer relations with Russia and has spoken favorably about Putin. Democrats have questioned his ties to the Kremlin, particularly after U.S. intelligence officials assessed that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election on Trump’s behalf.

Putin addressed his country’s nuclear capabilities during an annual year-end meeting of the Russian defense ministry. He said Russia should enhance missile complexes that can “penetrate existing and future missile defense systems.”

A U.S.-backed missile shield in Eastern Europe has been another source of tension between Washington and Moscow. Russia argues the system is a threat, while U.S. and NATO officials say it’s meant to deter Iran from targeting Europe.

The state of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was rarely addressed during the presidential campaign. To the extent it was, Trump showed faint understanding of its details. During a Republican primary debate, he appeared unfamiliar with the concept of a nuclear triad, the Cold War-era combination of submarines, land-based missiles and strategic bombers for launching nuclear attacks.

Trump’s vanquished campaign rival Hillary Clinton repeatedly cast the Republican as too erratic and unpredictable to have control of the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The president-elect’s transition website says he “recognizes the uniquely catastrophic threats posed by nuclear weapons and cyberattacks,” adding that he will modernize the nuclear arsenal “to ensure it continues to be an effective deterrent.”

Trump has spent the week at Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida estate, meeting advisers and interviewing candidates for a handful of Cabinet positions that remain unfilled. On Wednesday, he met with Pentagon officials and the CEOs of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, companies with lucrative government contracts.

Since winning the election, Trump has complained about the cost of Boeing’s work on two new Air Force One planes and Lockheed’s contract for F-35 fighter jets. Following the meetings, both CEOs said they had discussed lowering costs of the projects with the president-elect.

On Thursday, Trump pitted the two companies against each other on Twitter. “Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!” he tweeted.

Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said Thursday, “We have committed to working with the president-elect and his administration to provide the best capability, deliverability and affordability.” Lockheed declined to comment.

Trump’s tweet came after the close of trading on Wall Street. But in after-hours dealings, shares of Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. fell 2 percent, while Chicago-based Boeing Co.’s stock rose 1 percent.

Boeing and Lockheed are also among the companies pursuing a contract for replacing Minuteman missiles in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Spokespeople for the two companies declined to comment on whether that contract came up during Trump’s meetings with their CEOs.

The president-elect was also building up his White House staff, announcing Thursday that campaign manager Kellyanne Conway would serve as a counselor. The move will put Conway in close proximity to the president, though she is also expected to remain a visible presence promoting Trump’s agenda in the media.

Trump also announced veteran Republican operatives Sean Spicer as his press secretary and Jason Miller as communications director. Hope Hicks, Trump’s long-serving campaign spokeswoman, is also joining the White House in a senior communications position.

Associated Press writers Lynn Berry and Joan Lowy in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.
President-elect Donald Trump names his former presidential campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as his Counselor to the President.