Day 173: Donald Trump’s Paper-Thin Government is His Own Fault

Hundreds of vacant, pertinent positions are the result of no nomination being forwarded by the White House.

Donald Trump is upset that he doesn’t have many of his nominees in place throughout the government nearly six months in to his presidency.

First, he’s complaining about obstruction, but Americans really don’t care about that argument. Republicans played that game for years under Barack Obama and were handsomely rewarded at the voting booths in 2016. Additionally, all that’s needed on these nominees is a simple majority. The Republicans control both what comes to the floor and a straightforward vote on party lines confirms the nominee with a couple votes to spare. If Republicans want to get stuff done, then they should get stuff done.

Most importantly, all of this is Trump’s own undoing. The Washington Post partnered with Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization to track more than 500 key positions from announcement to formal nomination through the confirmation process. (Their tracking focuses on the more paramount roles that make up the more than 1,200 positions that require Senate confirmation.)

Of the most essential 564 positions that require Senate confirmation that the Post and PPS are tracking:

Trump has nominated a mere 176 individuals, 47 of which have already been confirmed. Meanwhile, Trump has yet to even announce a nominee for 382 critical positions. (Six more have been announced but never formally nominated, such as would-be ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman.)

In other words, Trump has nominated just 31 percent of the people necessary to fill the most vital positions. The positions that have no nominee include key ambassador positions (such as Germany and South Korea), numerous deputy secretaries, chief financial officers, general counsels, assistant attorneys general, directorships and inspectors general.

These join the hundreds of supporting role positions that also require confirmation that have yet to see a nominee as well.

To have so many crucial positions still vacant is dangerous. That’s on Trump, not on Democrats.

173 days in, 1289 to go

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