"I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!” Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night. | AP Photo Trump shoots down reports that his transition is in disarray

Donald Trump pushed back against the notion that his week-old presidential transition team has devolved into a “knife fight,” writing on Twitter that he is overseeing a “very organized process.”

That process, which involves making thousands of political appointments before Trump takes office next January, has reportedly been fraught thus far with power struggles between influential members of the Manhattan billionaire’s team. And while he has made just two appointments so far, Reince Priebus as his chief of staff and Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, rumors continue to swirl about the avalanche of names reportedly under consideration for cabinet posts.


“Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.

But one insider told POLITICO that the transition is "an absolute knife fight," with multiple people jockeying for positions.

Trump continued his defense into Wednesday morning, tweeting "Australia, New Zealand, and more. I am always available to them. @nytimes is just upset that they looked like fools in their coverage of me" — a shot at the New York Times' story published Tuesday that reported U.S. allies had no contacts with Trump and were "blindly dialing in to Trump Tower to try to reach the soon-to-be-leader of the free world."

Trump also tweeted Wednesday morning that he isn't trying to get his children "top level" security clearances, saying it was "a typically false news story," It wasn't clear if he also included his son-in-law Jared Kushner along his children. Kushner has been a close adviser to Trump and is believed to be under consideration for a White House position.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller said on CNN Wednesday that the president-elect tweeted because he's trying to set the record straight and he's "not going to be confined by the media norms."

He added that there's a clear structure in place for the transition team and that internally the staff is calm. He also blamed some of the "palace intrigue" on people who are bitter for not being tapped for certain positions. He also said that he and Kushner were laughing this morning when they read some of the news reports about the infighting within Trump's transition team.

"This whole description of the knife fight, or this internal fighting. Nothing could be further from the truth," he said.

Two names floated for perhaps the highest profile cabinet post, that of secretary of state, have already drawn heavy scrutiny. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is believed to be a front-runner for the job, but he has little foreign policy experience and has done paid consulting work for foreign governments that would create a conflict of interest if he was appointed to the job.

Former United Nations ambassador John Bolton has also been rumored to be under consideration, prompting Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to promise to “do whatever it takes to stop someone like John Bolton being secretary of state.”

Trump also broke with presidential protocol Tuesday night when he left behind the pool of reporters covering him to go have dinner at a Manhattan steakhouse. His campaign press secretary Hope Hicks said she was not aware that the president-elect had left Trump Tower and that she would not do anything to “leave the press in the dark” even though the Manhattan billionaire has evaded pool coverage in the past and did not allow reporters to travel on his plane with him during the campaign, something past candidates have done.

