Corker’s prospects for Trump cabinet appointment dim

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker says he’s unlikely to be appointed U.S. secretary of state by President-elect Donald Trump. His comments come with national media reports focusing on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, who was ambassador to the United Nations when George W. Bush was president.

Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as quoted in the Washington Post Tuesday:

“Certainly, during the process of forming names and all that, you know, there’s been some conversations. I haven’t had any — certainly there have been conversations. But I understand that at the same time there’s some people that have been centrally involved in the campaign that have an interest in being secretary of state,” Corker said.

“There are people that have been very close to the campaign that likely are the people that will be chosen for that type of position … Has my name been in the mix? I’m pretty sure, yeah. Have I been having intimate conversations? No. Do I understand that it’s likely that people who’ve been involved in the center of this for some time, and have been surrogating [sic] on television, are likely front-runners? I would say that’s likely, yes.’

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Corker has apparently been in the mix. For example, Politico has a story on U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., vigorously opposing Bolton as secretary of state and not keen on Giuliani. Excerpt:

Asked who he would like to see as secretary of state, Paul demurred, saying that wasn’t his place, but did nod to Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whose name has also been floated.

“Given the three names—Bolton, Giuliani and Corker—Corker would be much more reasonable, much more realist as far as foreign policy goes,” he said.

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Corker has also been prominently mentioned as a prospective appointee as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. But the national media focus there is also on others. Bloomberg News, for example, says Trump’s transition team is ready to recommend former Goldman Sachs Group partner Steven Mnuchin for that post and is awaiting Trump’s final approval.

From that report: The transition team also was said to be considering investor Wilbur Ross Jr., Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon.  There’s no mention of Corker.