Trump transition points toward presidency with new norms

Trump's search for Cabinet nominees has played out like a reality TV show, with a number of candidates engaged in unabashed self-promotion while their assets and liabilities are publicly debated by members of the president-elect's own transition team.

President Barack Obama, who knows a thing or two about making the big leap to the Oval Office, has expressed hope that the weight of the office will ultimately have a sobering effect on Trump, cautioning people against assuming "the worst."

[...] Thomas Mann, a longtime scholar of government from the Brookings Institution, said that while people can hope for the best, "There's no reason to take what's going on with anything other than great uneasiness and caution about the kind of government that is preparing to take control in the United States."

—Trump's out-of-the-blue tweet this week that people who burn the flag should face jail time or a loss of citizenship had Republicans stepping forward to defend First Amendment rights.

—His unfounded charges that millions of Americans voted illegally sow distrust in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system.

[...] experts on government ethics say that if the president doesn't sell off his vast business buildings, he'll be subject to a never-ending string of conflict-of-interest questions that will cast a cloud over his policy actions.