By Steve Peoples, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Julie Pace, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is enlisting a trio of nominees with deep ties to Washington and Wall Street to fill out his Cabinet, including former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as secretary of the Treasury Department. The source has knowledge of the pick by spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the pick, which is expected to be announced Tuesday afternoon. Schumer said in a statement early Tuesday that the Georgia congressman “has proven to be far out of the mainstream of what Americans want when it comes to Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and Planned Parenthood.”

Schumer said those programs have helped millions of Americans, including “seniors, families, people with disabilities and women have access to quality, affordable health care.”

Having Price as HHS secretary, Schumer said, “is akin to asking the fox to guard the hen house.”

A Trump spokesman says Rep. Tom Price, Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, will have as his top mission replacing the so-called “Obamacare” health care law. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ms Chao is married to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

Tom Price

Mr Price, a 62-year-old congressman and orthopaedic surgeon, serves as the chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee. But he has no government experience, which could prove a hurdle in navigating the tricky politics of Washington. Ms Chao will play a crucial role under Mr Trump, who has vowed to make infrastructure spending on the country's roads, bridges and other public transit an integral part of his agenda. But their combined net worth of £200m is just one-tenth of the fortune of Mr Trump’s choice as Commerce Secretary, industrialist Wilbur Ross. Image caption Donald Trump had dinner with Mitt Romney (right) and his chief of staff Reince Priebus (left) on Tuesday

Mr Romney was one of Mr Trump's harshest critics during the campaign. After the elegant meal, the former Massachusetts governor — once a vocal critic — praised Trump for succeeding where he had failed, saying the president-elect offers a “message of inclusion and bringing people together.”

The meeting — their second in-person session — came as Trump is publicly weighing several options for secretary of state, including Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former CIA director David Petraeus. Romney spoke briefly to reporters after the meal, saying he has “increasing hope” that Trump can lead the country to a “better future.”

A transition official said the president-elect and Vice President-elect Mike Pence will travel to Indiana on Thursday for an event with Carrier, the air conditioning company. Carrier tweeted, “We are pleased to have reached a deal with President-elect Trump & VP-elect Pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy.”

Price, picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services after more than a decade in Congress, helped craft House Speaker Paul Ryan’s plan to privatize Medicare — a position Trump opposed in the campaign. The president-elect’s transition team did not immediately respond to questions about the congressman’s past commitment to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system, a position at odds with Mr Trump’s repeated campaign promises not to cut the popular health care programme that serves an estimated 57 million people. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders charged that Price “has a long history of wanting to do exactly the opposite of what Trump campaigned on.”

Like Price, Elaine Chao is well-known in Washington. US president-elect Donald Trump made two cabinet selections yesterday, choosing fierce Obamacare critic Tom Price to lead the department of health and human services, and Elaine Chao, who served in the cabinet of George W Bush, as secretary of transport.
President-elect Donald Trump names Tom Price as United States Secretary of Health and Human Services; former President George W. Bush Administration official and wife of Mitch McConnell Elaine Chao as United States Secretary of Transportation; (BBC)