Trump in No Hurry to Name Permanent Cabinet Members

At the moment, in addition to acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, five cabinet or cabinet-level positions in Donald Trump's administration are filled by "acting" officials: David Bernhardt (Interior), Patrick Shanahan (Defense), Matther Whitaker (AG), Andrew Wheeler (EPA), and Heather Nauert (U.N. Ambassador). Only Nauert is awaiting confirmation to permanent status, while only Whitaker has had a successor nominated (Bill Barr). On Sunday, Donald Trump said he is in no hurry to name permanent replacements for the other posts, including chief of staff, saying that the current situation gives him more "flexibility."

Undoubtedly, Trump is right about that. It is much easier for him, politically, to fire or reassign acting cabinet officers than it is for those who have been confirmed. Certainly, the interim folks know that, and are considerably less likely to push back against the administration. The President likes that; the fewer James Mattises and Rex Tillerson from here on out, the better.

That said, this new "policy" undoubtedly also reflects certain realities that Trump would prefer not to admit publicly. Given his administration's general dysfunction, and its legal problems, not to mention his habit of abusing his underlings and blaming them for, well, everything, "the best people" are pretty much unwilling to serve under him. The second-best and third-best aren't too interested, either, which is how a president ends up with less-than-stellar people like Whitaker, a borderline white-collar crook who has ironically been put in charge of enforcing the nation's laws.

Further, given the type of people who are willing to accept a Trump appointment, the confirmation process tends to be pretty ugly, with plenty of black eyes (or potential black eyes) for the president. Consider the embarrassments with would-be labor secretary Andrew Puzder, or would-be VA secretary Ronny Jackson, or actual AG Jeff Sessions, or actual education secretary Betsy DeVos. Just last week, in fact, it came to light that current VA Secretary Robert Wilkie hid his connections to pro-Confederate groups when filling out his disclosure paperwork. Relatively minor compared to some of the black marks on the records of Trump appointees, but a good reminder that anyone he picks is going to be subject to all sorts of scrutiny, and is probably not going to stand up well to that.

In short, Trump has all sorts of reasons to drag his feet here. At the same time, there is fairly little pressure on him to find permanent replacements. As we all learned with Merrick Garland, the whole appointment and confirmation process assumes that the various players will act in good faith and will handle their responsibilities in a timely manner. But if they choose not to do so, there is no particular penalty for it. We could get into a constitutional gray area if one of the interim appointees needs to perform certain tasks, like invoke the 25th Amendment or fire the special counsel. But that day may never come, and until then, there's nothing to light a fire under Trump. So, it wouldn't be a surprise if these people stay in their jobs for a very long time, maybe even until the end of his term. (Z)

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https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2019/Pres/Maps/Jan07.html#item-2