Foreign policy

Rudolph Giuliani’s Business Ties Viewed as Red Flag for Secretary of State Job

Rudolph W. Giuliani, facing a flood of questions about whether his business dealings should disqualify him from being named President-elect Donald J. Trump’s secretary of state, on Tuesday defended his lucrative 15 years in the private sector as a credential for the job.

“I have friends all over the world,” Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, said in an interview. “This is not a new thing for me. When you become the mayor, you become interested in foreign policy. When I left, my major work was legal and security around the world.”

As secretary of state, Mr. Giuliani, a loyal, often ferocious backer of Mr. Trump’s candidacy, would make fighting Islamist terrorism the centerpiece of the incoming administration’s foreign policy. He vaulted to national prominence because of his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and he still views foreign policy through the prism of that day.