Reince Priebus arrives for a day of meetings at the clubhouse of Trump National Golf Club November 19, in Bedminster, New Jersey. | Getty Priebus: Trump won't rule out lifting Russia sanctions

Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus would not commit the administration of President-elect Donald Trump to keeping sanctions against Russia in place, telling MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “you have to just wait and see.”

Priebus, who will leave his job as chairman of the Republican National Committee to join Trump’s White House, said Tuesday morning that he was “not prepared to outline our foreign policy” when asked if the president-elect intends to keep sanctions in place against Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea away from Ukraine. Trump has pledged warmer relations with Russia and has called its strongman president Vladimir Putin a “strong leader.”


“Here's what I would tell you: If you are going to have sanctions in place, they need to be enforced. That I can tell you for sure is something he believes in, and as far as where that product goes next, you have to just wait and see,” Priebus said. “I mean, we are just getting our cabinet put together now, and as I think president-elect outlined many times over the last six weeks, sitting down with our generals, sitting down with our leadership, formulating our policy and revealing that to the American people will be the first order of business.”

Priebus’s refusal to rule out lifting sanctions against Russia came on the same day that Trump’s transition team announced plans to nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state. Tillerson has close financial ties to Russia and was awarded its “Order of Friendship” by Putin in 2013. He has spoken out against sanctions in the past, although Priebus said labeling Tillerson as against sanctions all-together is inaccurate.

“Well what he said was that the sanctions were ineffective but the reason they were ineffective is that they weren’t being enforced, and so his point was unless you’re going to enforce the sanctions, they’re not effective. And people are looking at the first part of that statement and not the second,” Priebus said. “Look, I know where Rex Tillerson is on this: He believes the sanctions and the threat of sanctions are an important part of international strategy and diplomacy, and so he’s not against sanctions, I just want to assure you of that. But what he is against is setting up sanctions that are not enforced.”

