The resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn last week highlighted a key problem of the new Trump Administration, it has yet to fill all the positions required to run a superpower. Until The Oval Office and its support Offices are fully staffed it will struggle to put into effect the promises made by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.
Holes to fill
As reported in the Washington Post, at the beginning of its term in Office the Trump White House has to nominate a total of 549 positions for Senate confirmation, including the Secretaries.
At the present time only 14 have been confirmed, 20 are awaiting confirmation and 525 positions are awaiting nominations.
The figures prove that this is a matter that must be resolved as soon as possible. As well as the obvious Secretaries the positions include important Ambassadorial nominations, Commissioners, under Secretaries, Directorships and many important positions needed for the smoothing running of any government, let alone that of the United States. These vacancies are spread over all the Government Departments.
Yet these are not the only positions to be filled.
Not just the Administration
In a period where the role of the Judiciary are been put under the spotlight, there are also a number of judicial positions to be filled.
According to the Washington Post, the Trump Administration inherited more than a hundred judicial vacancies to be filled. This number is larger than that inherited by Barack Obama in 2009, but this can be explained by the struggle between the Obama White House and the Senate when the Legislative branch slowed the approval of the Oval Office’s nominations to the Judiciary after the Republicans took control of the Senate and ultimately refused to consider Obama’s replacement for deceased Justice Antonin Scalia in the Supreme Court.
Due diligence
These delays on nominations simply mean we will not be able to properly judge Team Trump until all the positions are filled. The activities of the Oval Office in its first weeks obviously point to an Administration that will only appoint those that will unquestioningly obey directions from the President.
In the mean time the country will continue to face the possibility of executive orders and other decisions that will not have been processed with all the due diligence that should be expected from any decision coming from the White House.
Undoubtedly these positions will be amongst the decisions we can expect over not only during this week, but also for at least the immediate future. Given the controversy of some of the choices so far, #Donald Trump’s decisions on who to fill the vacancies will continue to be the cause of unwanted headlines and therefore continue to create public relations headaches for the still incomplete Administration for who knows how long into the future.
