Donald Trump is going to try to show a more sensitive side Thursday, meeting with victims of last week’s Ohio State University attack, before taking his “thank you” road show to three more states that supported him in the election.

Trump is taking on a grim task that President Barack Obama has faced numerous times over the last eight years: consoling the survivors after an attack of mass violence. Trump is flying Thursday to Columbus, Ohio, where Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, stabbed students before being fatally shot by police. Artan first rammed a campus crowd with his car before hopping out with a knife.

Later, the president-elect is heading to Des Moines, Iowa, for his third post-election victory celebration. On Friday, he’s holding rallies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Trump’s travels come after a busy Wednesday at Trump Tower in New York, where more of his Cabinet picks were revealed.

Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly has been selected to head the Department of Homeland Security, and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate-change denier whose policies have helped fossil fuel companies, is to be announced as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Separately, Trump named the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon, to head the Small Business Administration — and may have breathed new life into the candidacy of a secretary of state contender.

Trump said he planned to name his choice for the key Cabinet post next week and insisted that former rival Mitt Romney still had a chance. Trump, who has met twice with the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, denied he was stringing Romney along to make him pay for earlier remarks that Trump was unfit to be president.

“No, it’s not about revenge. It’s about what’s good for the country, and I’m able to put this stuff behind us — and I hit him very hard also,” Trump said in a telephone interview on NBC.

Three sources close to the selection process said late Wednesday that Romney’s stock is on the rise again within Trump’s circle after a period in which the celebrity businessman had cooled on the candidacy of the former Massachusetts governor. But Trump has changed his mind repeatedly throughout the process and has expanded the pool of contenders beyond the previously identified final four of Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker and former CIA Director David Petraeus.

Meanwhile, Trump moved toward making another addition to the collection of generals in his Cabinet, settling on Kelly to head Homeland Security, according to people close to transition. Gen. Kelly, who joined the Marine Corps in 1970, retired this year after a final command that included oversight of the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

He has a reputation as a border hawk after a time in the Southern Command, which is based in South Florida and regularly works with Homeland Security on missions to identify and dismantle immigrant smuggling networks.

Trump also picked Pruitt, a longtime critic of the EPA, to head that same agency, according to a person close to Pruitt who was not authorized to speak publicly about the choice before it was announced. The move comes just after Trump met with former Vice President Al Gore, who is an environmental activist, and said he had “an open mind” about honoring the Paris climate accords.

That gave hope to some environmentalists, but on Wednesday Trump’s apparent decision was denounced by Democrats.

“Mr. Pruitt’s record is not only that of being a climate change denier, but also someone who has worked closely with the fossil fuel industry to make this country more dependent, not less, on fossil fuels,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

But Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican, said Pruitt “has proven that being a good steward of the environment does not mean burdening taxpayers and businesses with red tape.”

Later Wednesday, Trump and his daughter Ivanka met with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a strong advocate of fighting climate change. Terry Tamminen, the CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, said he and DiCaprio presented Trump with a “framework” on how focusing on renewable, clean energy could create millions of job.

The president-elect also announced his selection of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as the new U.S. ambassador to China. Trump and Branstad are expected to appear together in Iowa on Thursday.

(AP)