U.S. President Donald J. Trump still has the “help wanted” shingle hanging from his White House office.
In fact, as of the end of last month, he had only managed to get 26 cabinet appointments confirmed through the U.S. Senate.
That leaves more than 1,000 posts requiring Senate approval still to be filled.
As a point of reference, by the time former U.S. President Barack Obama had reached his 100-day benchmark in office, he had 69 confirmations, and George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush, had 35, 49 and 50 confirmations, respectively.
So what’s the holdup with Trump’s nominees?
To begin with, the Democrats have intentionally dragged their feet on passing anything that comes out of the Trump White House.
But there is also the issue of increased vetting processes and a growing number of appointments.
Furthermore, truth be told, Trump has not made choosing appointees a big priority.
So far, he has submitted less than 50 nominations out of more than 500 top positions, leaving him to essentially be a one-man show of power in his administration.
He has also alienated several potential nominees and seems to be at a loss to cope with the sheer size of the executive branch cabinet and subcabinet workforce.
The fact that the United States has more political appointees than any other developed democracy doesn’t help.
Combing through more than 100,000 applications and resumes is a daunting job for anyone, especially for someone like presidential headhunter Johnny DeStefano, who has absolutely no prior experience in executive recruitment.
Then, of course, there is the matter of Trump’s somewhat dubious choices for cabinet and subcabinet appointees.
Several of his would-be executive appointees — including Andrew Puzder and, of course, Mike Flynn — have turned out to be as much an asset to Trump’s administration as a bulldozer strapped with a ton of dynamite plowing through a china cabinet.
And, lest we forget, there is the question of the U.S. president’s alienation of potential nominees through his outspoken attacks on everyone from the Republican establishment to the intelligence community. (And, who wants to work with the likes of Steve Bannon?)
The sum product is a less-than-half-equipped cabinet at a time when Washington is facing a barrage of national and international political firestorms.
Someone over at the White House has to get cracking with filling the executive payroll rosters … preferably, before there is a change in the executive post itself.
Thérèse Margolis can be reached at [email protected].
