Trump makes U-turn on major polls promise

Donald Trump was scheduled to huddle yesterday with his White House transition team for a second day over cabinet picks as the president-elect says he is open to keeping parts of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

The billionaire real estate mogul said in interviews that he would consider an "amended" version of the 2010 law, a major U-turn in position after vowing on the campaign trail to repeal the measure.

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The announcement was one of several surprises, as Trump shook up his transition team by putting running mate Mike Pence in charge and named a cohort of Washington insiders -- and three of his children -- to help with the process of choosing a new cabinet.

The reshuffle came as anti-Trump protesters spilled onto the streets for a third straight night, with the Republican facing mounting calls to reassure Americans who fear a xenophobic crackdown under his authority.

The 70-year-old incoming president has a mammoth task of fleshing out his cabinet, as well as steering the complex transition of power, and announced on Friday he was elevating Vice President-elect Pence to lead the process.

Trump included three of his children and his son-in-law Jared Kushner on the transition team -- a move likely to raise eyebrows, since the tycoon earlier announced that should he win he would place his vast business interests into a blind trust operated by Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump.

And in a clear shift from his abrasive campaign, he added to his transition team a string of insider figures from the very establishment that he railed against so strongly, including Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus -- now tipped as a possible chief of staff.

Trump took his first steps toward engaging with Washington on Thursday when he met with Barack Obama at the White House to discuss the transition ahead of the January 20 inauguration -- a conversation the outgoing president called "excellent."

The Oval Office meeting appears to have nudged Trump towards a compromise on his oft-repeated threat to repeal Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Trump told The Wall Street Journal the president asked him to consider preserving parts of the healthcare law -- and that he was open to the idea.

"Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced," Trump told the newspaper. "I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that."

According to The Journal, Trump said he favored maintaining a prohibition on insurance companies denying consumers coverage based due to so-called pre-existing conditions. Before the law took effect, insurers had been able to refuse to cover people who had previously suffered almost any illness.

Trump also said he was not opposed to requiring insurers to allow children to remain on their parents' insurance policies until the age of 26, a key Obamacare tenet.

“I like those very much,” he told the paper.

On the Syrian conflict, however, Trump indicated a possible sharp shift away from Obama administration policy.

"I've had an opposite view of many people regarding Syria," he told the paper, suggesting a closer focus on fighting the Islamic State group -- and arguing that in seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, "we end up fighting Russia," the regime's ally.

Trump has already spoken with a string of world leaders including British Prime Minister Theresa May and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he reaffirmed Washington's strong relations.

The apparently harmonious meeting between Trump and Obama was designed to heal divisions and quell fears about the health of the world's leading democracy.

Thousands of protesters took their frustrations onto the streets on Friday and into Saturday in several cities, including Portland, Oregon, where one protester was shot.

The unidentified man was wounded on Portland's Morrison Bridge at 12:45 am local time as he and dozens of other protesters crossed it during their demonstration, one of several across the country denouncing Trump's campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and women.

Hundreds of protesters also marched through the streets of Los Angeles, blocking traffic as they waved signs in opposition of Trump and chanted "We reject the president elect" and "Whose streets? Our Streets".

Several thousand activists marched through downtown Miami, with a few hundred making their way onto a highway, halting traffic in both directions.

In New York, demonstrators again gathered in Washington Square Park and by Trump Tower, where the Republican president-elect lives, on Fifth Avenue.

Trump, who initially denounced Americans who protested against his election saying they had been "incited" by the media, reversed course and praised them on Friday.

"Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!" Trump said on Twitter.

The tweets were further evidence of Trump's mixed messages since he announced his candidacy 17 months ago. After Democrat Hillary Clinton conceded defeat early on Wednesday, he took a far more conciliatory tone than he had often displayed during his campaign and promised to be a president for all Americans.

Anti-Trump demonstrators have voiced concerns that his presidency, due to start on Jan 20, would infringe on Americans' civil and human rights.