OF THE 4,100 NEEDED WHITE HOUSE APOINTMENTS, LESS THAN 100 HAVE BEEN FILLED

…Today, you could roller skate today in the halls of this house

 

The Trump Transition Team did not do their homework.

 

We are already starting to see the results of Trump’s false statement that his administration is running like a “fine-tuned machine”.  As one writer for The Post put it: “Trump’s White House government halls are sounding more with echo’s than busy beehives.”

 

As a case in point, usually both the State department and the White House hold daily briefings.  But the State department hasn’t had a briefing in weeks.  That’s because hundreds of vital sub-Cabinet appointments have not been made.

 

The Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who is just back from his first trip abroad, however, no deputy secretary has been nominated. Instead, hard-working government officials are holding down these posts, but only in an acting capacity.

 

One of the reasons for this is because of poor transition team planning......plus, Trump has personally gotten involved in approving some of the individuals that were designated as deputies by Trump’s own appointees.

 

You can only imagine the Secretary of State’s total frustration when his choice for deputy secretary of state, Elliott Abrams, was torpedoed by Mr. Trump.  And this was only because of an op-ed Mr. Abrams had written earlier that criticized Donald Trump, the candidate.

 

But that wasn’t the only one that went through that negative process.  The New York Times has reported that a problem occurred with a top aide to Ben Carson, the nominee for the housing and urban development secretary.  The aide was fired and was embarrassingly escorted out of the HUD department after an article of his that was critical of Mr. Trump turned up during his vetting.

 

There is no doubt that the Democrats have been going after all those inexperienced billionaires that Trump has been nominating for his cabinet.  Because of the Dem's efforts, and the concern that some Republican senators might join the Democrats, as of today, only 9 of 15 secretaries have been confirmed.  But the real issue is that hundreds of vital sub-Cabinet appointments of the 549 needed key appointments, the White House has yet to name 515 of them.  That is according to a tracker at The Post and at the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

 

Only 14 of the needed 549 have been confirmed, and only 20 are waiting for confirmation. These key positions are among the roughly 1,200 total that require Senate confirmation and about 4,100 overall that the new administration must still fill.  This is why the halls of the White House have echo’s and it shows just how many on the Trump transition team did not think that Trump was going to win the election in November.  They obviously did not do any of the homework that was needed in getting pre-chosen people for a potential Trump administration.  This is what most presidential transition teams usually do.

 

The business of finding good people and steering them through the maze of approvals and security clearances is a complex and difficult task.  But it also seems that the overall Trump White House chaos is taking a major toll on this process.

 

On top of these issues, the National Security Council, is always the nerve center for the nation's foreign and defense policy.   But even though Michael Flynn was one of the first confirmed nominees, the council has lost its first Trump-appointed chief after less than four weeks on the job.  Then, when that position was offered to a retired vice admiral, Robert Harward, he reportedly turned it down in part because of the unpredictable behavior of the president.

 

On Monday, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster was finally named to the council post.

 

Word has it on the street from congressional Republicans, who do have the legislative majority, they are saying that they are having difficulty finding anyone to ask about what the real priorities are for the Trump administration.

 

Let’s face it, Mr. Trump’s was elected mainly because of his business experience that he achieved in building skyscrapers.  But it has become obvious that If he is to succeed in re-building the US government, he needs to pay a lot more attention than he has shown so far regarding the high vacancy rate in his White House "Trumpville".

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017