The biggest problem with the Whitehouse is Trump himself. But like Trump most of his cabinet picks have either little to no experience running a government agency at all or little to no experience in the field of the agency that they were chosen to run. And it seems that they were chosen to run their respective agencies only to destroy their respective agencies in one way or another. What could possibly go wrong?
- Attorney General, Jeff Sessions (Confirmed): The former Republican Senator of Alabama. He is a racist who called an African American attorney a boy. His former colleagues testified that he used the N-word. He said the Voting Rights Act was intrusive. He attacked the NAACP and ACLU and said that they were Communist inspired and un-American for forcing civil rights down the throats of people. He joked that he thought the Ku Klux Klan was ok until he found out that they smoked marijuana. And he referred to a White attorney who took voting rights cases as a traitor to his race. When Sessions was up for a federal judgeship in 1986, Coretta Scott King, the late widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask them to vote against his appointment. Both Democrat and Republican Senators considered him too racist for the job at the time. He has now been confirmed as Attorney General. I have two questions. If he was too racist to be a judge then why was he not too racist to be Attorney General? And if you are not a Caucasian person just how long do you think it will be before your rights are damaged in some way?
- Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos (Confirmed): She is a supporter of poor quality unregulated charter schools and vouchers, not of public schools. She never went to public schools and neither did her children. She destroyed the public school system in Michigan. So I’m sure that she will do her best to destroy the public school system in America. If Trump wants your children under-educated and the Department of Education destroyed then she is a great choice.
- Energy Secretary, Rick Perry (Confirmed): The former Republican Governor of Texas. And former Presidential candidate who is a climate change denier that, during a debate, tried to say as President he would eliminate the Department of Energy, but he forgot the name of the department. This is the man who is now confirmed to run the department that he wanted to get rid of. Not only did he want to get rid of this department but he didn’t even know what this department did but Trump picked him to run it. This is another department that Trump is trying to destroy.
- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Scott Pruitt (Confirmed): The former State Attorney General of Oklahoma. Another climate change denier Republican who was is the middle of a lawsuit against the EPA to stop the Clean Power Plan. But he has sued the EPA 13 times and has a long record of attacking the EPA and undermining environmental regulations. The only reason for Trump or anyone else to choose this man to run a department that he hates, who refers to himself as a “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” and was literally in the process of suing is to totally destroy this department. So there goes our clean air and water.
- Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price (Confirmed): The former Republican Representative of Georgia. And an orthopedic surgeon who is opposed to and wants to repeal and replace Obama Care and wanted to defund Planned Parenthood as well. He is being investigated for unethical stock trading of health industry stocks. Members of Congress and their staffs are banned from trading stocks based on insider information. Isn’t insider trading the reason that Martha Stewart went to jail? And this is just one of the cases that Preet Bharara was investigating before he was fired by Trump.
- Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Ben Carson (Confirmed): The former Neurosurgeon and former Republican Presidential candidate who compared Obama Care to slavery. What? He has absolutely no experience in the field of Housing and Urban Development what so ever. Even Ben Carson himself admitted that he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency and that he was not qualified. Truer words have never been spoken and that’s the only sane thing I’ve ever heard him say. But then the question comes to mind that if he is aware of that then why did he run for President, just to sell his books?
- Labor Secretary, R. Alexander Acosta (Confirmed): The former Florida law school dean and former assistant attorney general for civil rights and the only Hispanic in his cabinet is a tame choice compared to the original pick, Andrew Puzder, who withdrew. Andrew Puzder the fast food industry businessman who hates labor. He opposed the $15.00 per hour minimum wage and wanted to replace workers with robots. What? There was no good reason to choose someone who hates labor to be the Labor Secretary other than Trump did not want things to end well for the laborers. Luckily he withdrew; we will see how it goes with R. Alexander Acosta.
- Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin (Confirmed): The former Goldman Sachs executive and former OneWest Bank banker known as the “foreclosure king” who bought distressed mortgages and evicted thousands of homeowners during the 2008 financial crisis.
As reported in The Daily Beast: A New York judge erased $525,000 in mortgage debt owed by a Long Island couple to OneWest Bank in 2009 because the institution was harassing them. Suffolk County Judge Jeffrey Spinner blasted the bank’s “harsh, repugnant and repulsive” acts as they attempted to toss the family out on the street around Thanksgiving. Around the same time, Mnuchin’s bank was hounding an 89-year-old widow, attempting to foreclose on her home in California. Irene Jones, the woman in question, is reported to have said in court that the stress of repeated foreclosure threats from OneWest Bank and its predecessor IndyMac Bank made her husband depressed and contributed to his death. One-hundred-and-three-year-old Myrtle Lewis ran into such issues with OneWest in 2014. She accidentally allowed her insurance to lapse, which prompted the bank to attempt to foreclose on her property. Lewis reinstated her insurance and the bank still didn’t back off. It is unclear what happened to the property.
- State Secretary, Rex Tillerson (Confirmed): The former Exxon Mobil oil company president and chief executive. The only member of Trump’s cabinet to have been given the highest award that the Russians give to foreign people by Putin himself. He has no experience in running a government agency at all. However, he has a vast amount of experience in making deals with foreign governments to get their oil even if the deals made were against the best interests of the US government or against the best interests of the people in those countries. Or the employees of the company committed dangerous actions that were against the best interests of people in general. And Trump and Tillerson are gutting the State Department; employees that have worked there for decades have been fired.
- Chief Strategist, Stephen K. Bannon (Appointed): The former Breitbart News Executive (which is fake news), who’s also known as Trump’s brain, the manipulator-in-chief and President Bannon, basically Trumps right hand man. He is a man with a lot of ideas, and a racist, a xenophobic and an anti Semite who wants to destroy the government or as Steve Bannon phrases it “the deconstruction of the administrative state” and that is just what they are doing.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams How did Donald Trump end up with a man like Steve Bannon working so closely to him in the White House? Author Joshua Green discusses his new book about Bannon, ‘Devil’s Bargain.’
On All In with Chris Hayes A now-fired NSC staffer wrote the president is under attack from ‘globalists’ and the ‘deep state’ – and the president reportedly loved his work.
Mr. Bannon’s exit, the latest in a string of high-profile West Wing shake-ups, came as Mr. Trump is under fire for saying that “both sides” were to blame for the deadly violence at a Virginia rally last week. Critics of Mr. Bannon accused the president of channeling his chief strategist when he equated white supremacists and neo-Nazis with the left-wing protesters who opposed them.
“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”
A caustic presence in a chaotic West Wing, Mr. Bannon frequently clashed with the president’s other aides as they fought over trade, the war in Afghanistan, taxes, immigration and the role of government. In an interview this week, Mr. Bannon mocked his colleagues, including Gary D. Cohn, one of the president’s chief economic advisers, saying they were “wetting themselves” out of a fear of radically changing trade policy.
Mr. Trump had recently grown weary of Mr. Bannon, complaining to other advisers that he believed his chief strategist had been leaking information to reporters and was taking too much credit for the president’s successes. The situation had become untenable, according to advisers close to Mr. Trump who were urging the president to remove Mr. Bannon — and, in turn, people close to Mr. Bannon were urging him to step down — long before Friday.
Mr. Bannon’s removal is a victory for Mr. Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general whose mission is to impose discipline on White House personnel. Yet Mr. Bannon may still prove to be a confidant for the president, offering advice and counsel from the outside, much like other former advisers who still frequently consult with Mr. Trump. Mr. Bannon, in particular, had formed a philosophical alliance with Mr. Trump and they shared an unlikely chemistry.
Despite his ideological similarities with Bannon, senior policy adviser Stephen Miller is seen as safe. He joined the campaign long before Bannon and has his own relationships with the president and other senior advisers. He has also distanced himself from Bannon in recent weeks.
Bannon — the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, a fiery, hard-right news site that has gone to war with the Republican establishment — for months was locked in a long and tortuous battle with senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and a coterie of like-minded senior aides, many with Wall Street ties.
Bannon had been expecting to be cut loose from the White House, people close to him said. One of them explained that Bannon was resigned to that fate and is determined to continue to advocate for Trump’s agenda on the outside.
On All In with Chris Hayes Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii reacts to Steve Bannon’s departure from the White House and Donald Trump’s behavior this week following his defense of white supremacists in Charlottesville.
On The Rachel Maddow Show Rachel Maddow reviews some of Donald Trump’s weird staff picks, many of whom, it turns out, are united by a connection to Russia, but Steve Bannon, though also a weird choice, has a different explanation for how he got there.
On The Rachel Maddow Show Jane Mayer, staff writer for The New Yorker, talks with Rachel Maddow about the role of Robert Mercer in funding Donald Trump and Breitbart, and what he might do next with Steve Bannon out of the white House.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Just hours after it was announced he was out of the administration, Steve Bannon gave an interview where he said the Trump presidency is “over,” and he’s already back at Breitbart. Ali Velshi discusses with Steve Schmidt, Jonathan Capeheart, and Wil Hylton.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Reports are conflicting over whether Steve Bannon was fired or resigned, but now that he’s gone and back at Breitbart, Bannon says he’s ready to ‘crush the opposition. ‘ Our panel discusses.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams In just 30 weeks in office, Trump’s White House has seen a slew of high-profile staffers cut loose. Is this proof the chaos candidate will remain the chaos president? Our panel discusses.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Saying that firing Bannon is just the president is ‘rearranging the deck chairs on the Trump Titanic,’ Hawaii Democrat Senator Mazie Hirono says Trump is the big problem at the White House.
- Press Secretary and Special Assistant to the President, Sean Spicer (Appointed): The former Communications Director of the Republican National Committee. Don’t even get me started about White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, on a daily basis he aggressively defends the indefensible, Trump. And with no facts what so ever Spicer attacks the media in the process.
You can not believe anything Trump says or that any of his people say, Trump does not have a credible bone in his body so people have to watch what he does not what he says because what he says are lies and a lot of it doesn’t even make any sense and he says one thing and then does a 180 degree turn to do something totally different.
July 21st 2017 as reported in the New York Times: Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned Friday (July 21st 2017) after telling President Trump he vehemently disagreed with his appointment of Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier, as his new communications director. After offering Mr. Scaramucci the job on Friday (July 21st 2017) morning, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Spicer to stay on as press secretary, reporting to Mr. Scaramucci. But Mr. Spicer rejected the offer, expressing his belief that Mr. Scaramucci’s hiring would add to the confusion and uncertainty already engulfing the White House, according to two people with direct knowledge of the exchange. Mr. Spicer’s top deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, will serve as press secretary instead.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Two White House Reporters discuss the resignation of Press Secretary Sean Spicer after six months on the job.
On All In with Chris Hayes Back in September 2010, then hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci asked a question at a CNBC town hall with President Obama. The President did not agree with Scaramucci’s point – far from it – and offered a five-plus minute response to explain why.
“The Daily Show” promoted a video on July 24th 2017 showing the striking similarities between Trump’s and Anthony Scaramucci’s speaking styles. Scaramucci was named White House director of communications on July 21st. In the video compilation, Scaramucci is seen mirroring Trump’s body language and hand gestures almost perfectly. In a tweet promoting the video “The Daily Show” noted: “The Mooch did his homework.” See the full video here.
So now Scaramucci is fighting with Reince Priebus and Stephen K. Bannon. As reported in The New York Times: The internal rivalries of the White House spilled out into stark public view on Thursday (July 27th 2017) as Trump’s new communications director publicly attacked the chief of staff, calling him a “paranoid schizophrenic” leaker and vowing to get him fired. Anthony Scaramucci, who was installed as White House communications director last week over the objections of the chief of staff, Reince Priebus, in the morning called into CNN to say that the two men were at odds and to dare Mr. Priebus to deny being a leaker. By the evening, The New Yorker had posted an interview quoting Mr. Scaramucci using vulgar language to describe Mr. Priebus.
White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Wednesday (July 26th 2017) he will contact federal agencies over the “leak” of his financial disclosures, which he called a “felony,” despite the forms being publicly accessible. “In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45” Scaramucci tweeted late Wednesday. The tweet followed POLITICO’s publication of Scaramucci’s financial disclosures filed in the course of his employment with the Export-Import Bank. The documents are publicly available on request. Scaramucci subsequently deleted the tweet and replaced it with another disavowing widespread speculation that his message implied that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus should be investigated. “Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince 45.”
Speaking to CNN’s New Day co-host Chris Cuomo Thursday (July 27th 2017) morning, Scaramucci acknowledged that the documents are available publicly but still denounced leaks. “I understand the law. I know that there was a public disclosure mechanism in my financial forms,” he said. “What I’m upset about is the process and the junk pool, the dirty pool, Chris, in terms of the way this stuff is being done, and the leaking won’t stop.” The newly appointed White House communications director has made cracking down on White House leaks a staple of his early tenure. On Tuesday (July 24th 2017), Scaramucci threatened “to fire everybody” to stop the flow of leaks to the press, which have fueled numerous damaging reports about the administration.
On All In with Chris Hayes White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci uses ‘colorful’ language in a tirade against Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams After financial details of new White House Communications boss Anthony Scaramucci leaked to the press, Scaramucci reportedly wants the FBI to investigate if that leak came from Reince Priebus.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams The war in the White House got public and it got ugly with Anthony Scaramucci’s profanity filled interview with one reporter. Is the White House becoming too dysfunctional to get anything done? Our panel reacts.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Before even officially becoming Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci went on a threatening, vulgar tirade, attacking fellow White House aides and “leakers.” Lawrence O’Donnell argues this is a test—if Trump keeps Scaramucci, his presidency may never recover.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Obama Press Secretary Josh Earnest and Bush speechwriter David Frum join Lawrence O’Donnell to explain the deficiencies of the Trump communications team and how Anthony Scaramucci is not only ill-suited to his new role, but also doing far more harm than good.
- Reince Priebus says he resigned as White House chief of staff Thursday (July 27th 2017). Donald Trump drove out his chief of staff on Friday (July 28th 2017), replacing Reince Priebus with Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly in an explosive move that ends a turbulent six-month tenure. Trump made the announcement on Twitter just after landing on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
“I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff,” Trump tweeted. “He is a Great American… and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration.” Priebus, who had traveled with Trump to Long Island for an event on gang violence, was seated inside a Secret Service van on the tarmac when the message came down. Sources close to Priebus insisted to CNN throughout the day Friday he was not resigning, leaving the impression the aide was defiantly hanging onto his job amid public shaming by his colleagues.
The move followed months of on-again, off-again speculation that Priebus would soon be ousted from an administration where he has consistently drawn heavy criticism for failing to stem the flow of leaks and struggled to impose a sense of order in a chaotic White House beset by controversies.
Priebus, who was brought on by the outsider President in large part because of his Washington relationships, also wound up carrying a hefty share of the blame for the White House’s legislative stumbles. Rumors of infighting among Trump’s staff eventually devolved into all-out warfare, bursting dramatically into the open late Thursday (July 27th 2017) with a vulgar screed from incoming communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
Kelly had only been retired from the military eight months when Trump tapped him after last November’s election to run his Department of Homeland Security, a position that put Kelly in charge of the administration’s policies on issues including immigration, cybersecurity, countering domestic terrorism and aviation security.
A Marine, Kelly served in the military for nearly five decades and served in positions including chief of Southern Command, senior assistant to the secretary of defense and legislative liaison to Congress, and he served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kelly was born and raised in Boston and graduated from the University of Massachusetts. Kelly’s son, Robert Michael Kelly, was killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2010.
This was a major shake-up designed to bring order and military precision to a West Wing beset for six straight months by chaos, infighting and few tangible accomplishments. With his legislative agenda largely stalled, Trump became convinced that Priebus was a “weak” leader after being lobbied intensely by rival advisers to remove the establishment Republican fixture who has long had friction with some of Trump’s inner-circle loyalists, according to White House officials.
Kelly’s hiring is expected to usher in potentially sweeping structural changes to the turbulent operation and perhaps the departures of some remaining Priebus allies. Kelly intends to bring some semblance of traditional discipline to the West Wing, where warring advisers have been able to circumvent the chief of staff and report directly to the president and sidestep the policy process, according to people with knowledge of his plans.
Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, earned Trump’s approval for his work combating illegal immigration and his leadership qualities, both in the battlefield and at the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump has been talking privately about replacing Priebus with Kelly for several weeks now, though he is an unconventional pick to run the White House considering he has no political or legislative experience.
Trump first tried to offer the chief of staff job to Kelly in mid-May, according to two people familiar with their discussions. Kelly told the president that he was flattered, but declined, saying he still had more to accomplish beefing up national security and improving immigration enforcement. Trump did not give up, however. “The president has tried to convince the general multiple times, and the general has politely declined several times,” said one administration official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “But given what’s going on in Washington, I think the president really needs the general to help him restore order in this White House and advance his vision.”
Trump thanked Priebus on Twitter “for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!”
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell New Chief of Staff John Kelly will have to wrangle a man Eugene Robinson calls ‘Mad King Donald’ and his a mediocre staff if he’s to be at all effective. Will even Kelly end up a casualty of Trump? Robinson, Peter Wehner, and Chris Whipple join Lawrence O’Donnell.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Just six months in to what has become a chaotic presidency, Reince Priebus is out as Trump’s Chief of Staff. Our reporter panel shares the latest on his departure.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Can a former four-star Marine general bring some calm to the choppy waters of the Trump White House? Three men who know the general well join us to discuss.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Before it was announced on Twitter by Trump that Reince Priebus was out as Chief of Staff, he endured vulgar attacks from Trump’s new communications man Anthony Scaramucci.
On The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Will incoming Trump Chief of Staff General John Kelly have better luck than Reince Priebus? Boston Globe Washington columnist Indira Lakshmanan doesn’t like Kelly’s chances.
If the idea of bringing in General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff is to bring order, control and discipline to the White House, basically to stabilize the White House, well good luck with that. No one can bring order, control and discipline to this chaos. This White House is a house teetering on a toothpick, there is no stabilizing this mess and there is only a matter of time before this mess collapses.
But we will see just how far General/Secretary John F Kelly can get before General/Secretary John F Kelly says screw this, I don’t need this headache in my life and leaves himself.
The Anthony Scaramucci stuff is nonsense and just another distraction from the White House to take the focus from the main issues.
- July 31st 2017 Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director. It’s the latest high-profile departure from the Trump White House. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus resigned at the end of last week, replaced by John Kelly, whose first day is Monday (July 31st 2017). “Anthony Scaramucci will be leaving his role as White House Communications Director,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday afternoon. “Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give chief of staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. We wish him all the best.”
A White House official said Kelly wanted Scaramucci removed from his new role as the communications director because he did not think he was disciplined and had burned his credibility. Scaramucci, a colorful and controversial figure, was brought on during the latest in a long list of White House shake ups that have rocked the presidency with a sense of chaos. Scaramucci is the third White House communications director to leave the post that had been vacant since late May, when Mike Dubke left after about three months on the job. Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, also assumed some of the communications director role before he resigned when Scaramucci was hired July 21. Scaramucci’s departure comes days after he unleashed a vulgar tirade against two top White House officials in a conversation with a reporter.
Well General/Secretary John F Kelly passed Lawrence O’Donnell’s first test by getting Anthony Scaramucci out the first day on the job. Some have said if anybody can do the job General/Secretary John F Kelly can do the job. Perhaps General/Secretary John F Kelly can stabilize this mess but we will see what happens next.
On The Rachel Maddow Show Jonathan Swan, national political reporter for Axios, talks with Joy-Ann Reid about how Donald Trump managed to dismiss Anthony Scaramucci from the White House communications director position after a record-setting ten days.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell As Lawrence predicted, General John Kelly would have to make an immediate decision on Anthony Scaramucci’s role in the White House but there are still many more tests ahead like who to allow to see the President and who else should be removed from the West Wing.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell John Kelly is already making changes in the White House but as Max Boot says, the President could be the insolvable problem inside the West Wing. Max Boot, Jeremy Bash and White House Chief of Staff expert Chris Whipple join Lawrence.
On The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Republicans inside and outside the White House worry that Trump will fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions with grave consequences. Can new Chief of Staff John Kelly prevent that? Bloomberg’s Al Hunt and The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff join Lawrence.
- Counselor, Kellyanne Conway (Appointed): The former Trump Campaign Manager and a former Republican Pollster. She is the first woman in history to run a successful Presidential campaign. She said something was an ”alternative fact” which is actually a lie. So then everybody was talking about Trump and his “alternative facts”. People are entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts, there are no “alternative facts”, either it is a fact or it is not a fact. She said that there was a terrorist attack, a massacre in Bowling Green, Kentucky, she made it up there was no massacre in Bowling Green. Kellyanne Conway even said that microwave ovens can spy on you, no they can’t.
- Senior Adviser to the President, Jared Kushner (Appointed): Dictator Trump has some of his family working for him, as dictators normally do, despite the fact that there are nepotism laws. Trump gets around the nepotism laws by not having them take salaries. But I’m sure that they will more than make up for that with huge profits in one thing or another. Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, both work with Trump. But Jared Kushner has been put in charge of almost everything.
As reported by The Huffington Post: Jared Kushner, who comes to Washington with no government experience, no policy experience, no diplomatic experience, and business experience limited to his family’s real estate development firm, a brief stint as a newspaper publisher, and briefly bidding to acquire the Los Angeles Dodgers, will be working on trade, Middle East policy in general, an Israel-Palestine peace deal more specifically, reforming the Veterans Administration, and solving the opioid crisis. Oh wait, that’s not all! Apparently, this new office will also be responsible for “modernizing the technology and data infrastructure of every federal department and agency; remodeling workforce-training programs; and developing “transformative projects” under the banner of Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, such as providing broadband internet service to every American.” We have certainly come a long way from “I alone can fix it.”, The Huffington Post said.
- I do not include Trump’s entire cabinet here, only certain, generally the most notable, members of it. If you wish view the rest of his cabinet here are links to websites for that. The New York Times, The Atlantic’s Cabinet Tracker and The Guardian. And by the way, Trump is not draining any swamp, Trump has done nothing more than add bigger gators to the swamp and made the swamp bigger. So for all you “drain the swamp” people out there, you can forget that.
Trump’s Cabinet secretaries are growing exasperated at how slowly the White House is moving to fill hundreds of top-tier posts, warning that the vacancies are hobbling efforts to oversee agency operations and promote the president’s agenda, according to administration officials, lawmakers and lobbyists. The Senate has confirmed 26 of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top posts. But for 530 other vacant senior-level jobs requiring Senate confirmation, the president has advanced just 37 nominees, according to data tracked by The Washington Post and the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition. These posts include the deputy secretaries and undersecretaries, chief financial officers, ambassadors, general counsels, and heads of smaller agencies who run the government day-to-day. Trump is criticizing Democrats for not approving his nominees, but Trump himself has named few candidates. As part of a Monday morning tweetstorm, Trump posted that Democrats “are taking forever” to confirm his nominees, including ambassadors. Trump tweets: “They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals.” But Trump has yet to name candidates for dozens of ambassadorships. Currently, only five nominated candidates remain unconfirmed.
