Five issues where Trump shows flexibility

Donald Trump is signaling a willingness to bend some of the hard-line campaign promises that helped him upend the presidential election. 

And as the president-elect builds his Cabinet, old and new allies may reshape some of his domestic and foreign policy ideas.

Here are five issues where Trump may be flexible:

International allegiances

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly advocated for rethinking U.S. alliances and treaties, complaining that the country too often foots the bill for its allies.

{mosads}But since Election Day, there have been signals that the president-elect is more willing to embrace the country’s long-standing relationships.

During the campaign, Trump said that NATO is “obsolete” and criticized other member nations for not contributing their fair share to the alliance.

But President Obama said that in his talks with the president-elect, Trump said he wanted to preserve many of the country’s alliances, including NATO.

“In my conversation with the president-elect, he expressed a great interest in maintaining our core strategic relationships. And so one of the messages I will be able to deliver is his commitment to NATO and the Transatlantic Alliance,” Obama told reporters earlier this month before setting off on an international trip.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg echoed that assessment following his own conversation with Trump last week over the phone. 

“The President-elect and the Secretary General both underlined NATO’s enduring importance, and discussed how NATO is adapting to the new security environment, including to counter the threat of terrorism,” a statement from NATO said. 

And Trump also seems to be reconsidering his threat to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea if the country doesn’t contribute more to its own defense.

“President-elect Trump said he totally agreed with President Park’s ideas, including on the North Korean problem,” South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s office said in a statement after the two spoke. 

“Mentioning the heightened instability in the North, he continued to say that the United States would stand shoulder to shoulder with Korea to the end, adding that the alliance would remain unwavering.” 

Interrogation 

On the campaign trail, Trump not only voiced support for torture, but said in a GOP debate that the U.S. should go “tougher than waterboarding” to get information.

“Can you imagine these people, these animals over in the Middle East that chop off heads, sitting around talking and seeing that we’re having a hard problem with waterboarding?” Trump said. “We should go for waterboarding, and we should go tougher than waterboarding.”

The comments drew fierce pushback from some military figures who threatened to disobey such orders from the commander in chief.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who was a prisoner of war and chairs the Armed Services Committee, spoke out on the issue last week.

“I don’t give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do … we will not waterboard,” McCain said at the Halifax International Security Forum.

Trump told the New York Times in a meeting with reporters and editors this week that he had been discussing the issue with retired Marine Gen. James Mattis.

“He said, ‘I’ve never found it to be useful,'” Trump recalled.

Mattis, whom Trump is considering for Defense secretary, said he found more value in building trust and rewarding cooperation with suspected terrorists, according to Trump.

“I was very impressed by that answer,” Trump said. “[Torture is] not going to make the kind of difference that a lot of people are thinking.” 

Climate change

Trump intends to have a “totally open mind” when it comes to climate change issues, he told the Times.

When pressed on whether he thinks human activity is linked to climate change, he conceded that “I think there is some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much. It also depends on how much it’s going to cost our companies.”

The comments were a leap away from previous remarks on the issue – Trump has called climate change a Chinese hoax designed to make U.S. manufacturing less competitive.

Trump also left the door open to keeping the Paris climate agreement in place. One of his most high-profile pledges in the energy policy sphere on the campaign trail this year was to pull the U.S. out of the pact.

“I’ll tell you what. I have an open mind to it,” he said. “We’re going to look very carefully.”

Trump’s comments to the Times have given some environmentalists hope that he may be flexible on the issue.

But Trump has also appointed noted climate change skeptics to his staff and transition team.

Trump tapped Myron Ebell, who has questioned whether human activity is contributing to climate change and has fought against environmental regulations, to lead transition efforts for the EPA.

“It’s a very complex subject,” Trump told the Times. “I’m not sure anybody is ever going to really know.”

Charges for Clinton

Trump often reveled in the frequent chants of “lock her up” at his rallies, and attacked Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of State.

The real estate mogul vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton and quipped during a presidential debate that Clinton would be in jail if he were elected.

But Trump has since backed down after his Election Day upset, telling the Times that he doesn’t feel strongly about going after Clinton.

“It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons — I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”

Top aide Kellyanne Conway confirmed on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump will not pursue an investigation of Clinton. She said that “things that sound like the campaign” are not among Trump’s priorities as he prepares his incoming administration.

Trump’s comments have enraged the right. Right-wing website Breitbart News, whose former executive chair Steve Bannon will be Trump’s top White House adviser, called the reversal a “broken promise,” while conservative pundit Ann Coulter accused Trump of “blocking investigators from doing their jobs.” 

Business ties

Trump has long promised to turn his vast business operations over to his three grown children, arguing that it will create enough distance to prevent any conflicts of interest while he’s in office. 

But he appears to have taken no steps so far to disentangle himself from his business empire, and his three eldest children remain highly involved in his transition.  

“The law is totally on my side, meaning, the president can’t have a conflict of interest,” Trump told the New York Times. 

“In theory I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly.”