Obamacare, Iran deal and other promises appear to come in for adjustment as Trump dives into ‘swamp’ he vowed to drain with transition team appointments

Donald Trump appears to be backing away from several campaign promises, raising hopes that he could be more pragmatic in the White House than expected, but risking the wrath of his vociferous army of supporters – and, as he has done for months, refusing to commit to any one option.

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In the days since his victory in the electoral college, the president-elect has suggested that he could retain some elements of Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms, and his advisers appeared to tone down a pledge to “rip up” the Iran nuclear deal. As for Hillary Clinton, whom Trump had threatened to jail for unspecified crimes of corruption, he called her “very strong and very smart”.

The businessman, who pledged to “drain the swamp” of Washington insiders, appears to have started by diving straight into it. Before taking office in January, he has drawn up a transition team full of political old hands and led by the vice-president-elect, Mike Pence, the Indiana governor with decades’ worth of ties to Congress. Critics, however, warn of the dangers of seeking to normalise Trump, whose anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric has sown division and fear and given succour to far-right groups, including the Ku Klux Klan.

After defeating Clinton in the most shocking US election result in decades, sparking nationwide demonstrations, Trump visited the White House on Thursday and had a cordial meeting with Barack Obama, a man whose birth certificate he questioned for five years, and who had declared him unfit for the presidency.

Trump subsequently promised, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, to consider retaining aspects of Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act “out of respect” to the outgoing president. During the campaign, Trump had promised to “repeal and replace” the reforms but never explained a replacement in detail, nor its funding. And in a second interview with the CBS programme 60 Minutes, Trump said he would ensure that that people with pre-existing conditions and children living with their parents for an extended period were still covered.

“It’ll be just fine. That’s what I do. I do a good job,” he said. “You know, I mean, I know how to do this stuff. We’re going to repeal it and replace it. And we’re not going to have, like, a two-day period and we’re not going to have a two-year period where there’s nothing. It will be repealed and replaced. I mean, you’ll know. And it’ll be great healthcare for much less money.”

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Trump also struck a conciliatory note when discussing Clinton, whom he had branded “Crooked Hillary”, encouraging his supporters to chant “Lock her up!” He told CBS: “So, Hillary called, and it was a lovely call, and it was a tough call for her, I mean, I can imagine.

“Tougher for her than it would have been for me. I mean, for me, it would have been very, very difficult. She couldn’t have been nicer. She just said: ‘Congratulations, Donald, well done.’ And I said: ‘I want to thank you very much, you were a great competitor.’ She is very strong and very smart.”

Trump has ducked questions over his campaign pledge to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, insisting that securing the border, healthcare reform and job creation should take priority.

He said he would “certainly think about” calling former president Bill Clinton for advice, as well as Obama. So far he has relied heavily on politicians, Republican officials, donors and lobbyists, including veterans of both Bush administrations, despite his vows to take on special interests, tear down the political establishment and start afresh.

“Despite the bombast of Trump’s campaign, we will probably soon look back and see it as a storm in a teacup,” said George Ajjan, a Republican strategist. “His transition team draws heavily on the GOP beltway establishment, which should not surprise anyone, because even Trump needs people who know how to move papers from one desk to another if he’s to ‘Make America Great Again’.

“We have yet to see where he sets the ideological bar and on which issues he personally weighs in most heavily, but his approach to the presidency may be his distinguishing factor, running the country like a CEO and delegating more of the legislative interactions to Mike Pence, for example.”

Trump biographer Gwenda Blair also said the businessman was “entirely likely” to govern like a moderate Republican. “His pronouncements during the campaign were part of a performer’s strategy of always controlling the headlines by saying something and then topping that and topping that,” she said.

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“Twitter was technology’s gift to him in that he could keep leapfrogging ahead of any fact check. He’s a dealmaker who always wants to make it happen to his advantage. The gamble the nation has taken is that it will now work to the nation’s advantage.”

Nothing whipped up Trump’s crowds at rallies more than his plan to build a wall on the southern border and somehow force Mexico to pay the cost. But even this might be in doubt. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a close adviser to Trump, told the Washington Post: “He’ll spend a lot of time controlling the border. He may not spend very much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it, but it was a great campaign device.”

There also appeared to be some new hesitancy about the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, negotiated by international coalition. “‘Ripping up’ is maybe a too strong of word,” Trump adviser Walid Phares told the BBC on Thursday. “He’s gonna take that agreement, it’s been done before in international context, and then review it.”

Throughout a tumultuous campaign, Trump often contradicted his own policy ideas – reversing himself within hours on abortion and the minimum wage, for instance – and there is no guarantee that he will not reverse himself again. He remains, in the eyes of many, a threat to global and national security and a source of fear to millions of immigrants.

Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of Trump’s autobiography, The Art of the Deal, warned this election could presage the end of civilisation and said he saw no moderation in Trump. “I don’t see a significant possibility that Trump will change in any meaningful way,” he said. “It’s anyone guess, however, what he’ll decide serves him best.”

The infighting that plagued his election campaign has continued during the transition, according to Politico, which highlighted the role of Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

Kushner was influential in the decision to remove New Jersey governor Chris Christie as head of the transition team in favour of Pence, the website reported. Christie’s top aide, Rich Bagger, had fallen out of favour with Kushner, it added, and has been ousted.

Even on Twitter, the president-elect’s medium of choice, Trump gave no clear signal about his intentions, only his mutability. On Thursday he berated the press and protesters for being “very unfair” to him, only to declare on Friday: “Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country.”

On Saturday he returned: “This will prove to be a great time in the lives of ALL Americans. We will unite and we will win, win, win!”