Day 60: The U.S. is currently operating with a shell of a government
It’s been 60 days since Donald Trump has been elected president. There’s been tweeting and scandals and incompetence and conspiracy theories and conflicts of interest and awkward handshakes and non-handshakes and lots and lots of golf.
But there hasn’t been a whole lot attention to filling out the government.
Trump hasn’t actually accomplished a whole lot of substance, and hasn’t even put the mechanisms in place to do anything. As Politico reported:
Overall, according to the Partnership for Public Service, he has only filled 20 of the 553 key positions that require Senate confirmation — and has not even picked a nominee for 497 of them.
These are typically the most important roles, from over 150 ambassadors to over 130 directors and scores of secretaries, deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, U.S. attorneys, U.S. Marshals and certain key positions within non-regulatory executive branch agencies (such as NASA).
These positions are crucial to briefing and understanding all types of issues; continuing scientific progress; avoiding the stalling of investigations and prosecutions; working within the U.S. government and alongside foreign governments; and generally being ready to respond to a variety of situations or crises.
Depending on your viewpoint, the lack of work being done to fill these positions is gross incompetence from Trump, a good thing to limit the number of pro-Trump cronies in government, a natural part of the process that will be resolved soon, or something more sinister: the consolidation of power among those closest to Trump. Fewer people means fewer second guessing of decision makers.
Either way, it’s an extremely alarming situation considering the precedent in at least trying to get these positions filled. It’s one thing for Trump to blast Democrats for holding up his Cabinet, but there are no pending Cabinet nominations before the Senate and just a small handful of other nominees.
The only person prohibiting the filling out of the government right now is Trump.
Why?
60 days in, 1402 to go
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