Ex-admiral Stavridis won’t be in Trump administration

by Ben Kamisar - 12/30/16 12:44 PM ET

Retired Adm. James Stavridis won’t be in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, he said Friday.

When asked in an interview on MSNBC about whether he’d be interested in joining the White House, Stavridis, the dean of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a long-discussed potential Cabinet member, closed the door on an appointment.

“No, I think I can best continue to serve by doing commentary, running the Fletcher School,” he told MSNBC’s Peter Alexander.

“I’m happy to provide advice, but I don’t see myself joining the administration.”

{mosads}The retired admiral met with Trump in New York earlier this month amid speculation that he was being considered for secretary of State, a position that eventually went to Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson. Leaving that meeting, Stavridis characterized the conversation as “terrific.”

Stavridis also was under consideration to be Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s running mate before she chose Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Stavridis previously led NATO forces in Europe and served as the leader of the United States’s European Command and Southern Command.

Stavridis’s comments come hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate after President Obama levied sanctions on the country in response to Russian hacks of Democrats during the election.

Stavridis said he would recommend that Trump “confront where we must” on issues like Syria, Ukraine and cyber policy. But he added that “we should cooperate where we can on things like counterterrorism, counter-narcotics, counter-piracy, in the Arctic, potentially on arms control.”

“Let’s try and construct the different relationship but we have to confront when the behavior is truly outrageous as it was in the case of the hack against our election,” he added.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Tim Kaine