Less Shackled": How Trump Turned a Staffing Crisis into a Power Seizure Donald Trump has set a record that he won't want closed on any wall: His administration has more Senate-confirmed leadership vacancies than any since Ronald Reagan — and it's entirely his own doing. Republicans control the Senate. The permits are there for the taking. Instead, the White House stopped appointing people, stopped replacing those who fled, and let the administration's machinery rot into a monument to neglect. As of this month, 249 approved positions in the Senate have no candidate at all, and another 110 candidates are sitting without approval. The Public Service Partnership, which tracks this data, called the vacancy levels "unprecedented." This isn't a case of Democrats blocking Trump's election — the Republican-controlled Senate has actually approved 95% of the nominations that reach the floor. The problem is that the nominations never come. Trump introduced just 186 names this year, down from 452 in his first year. He recorded fewer nominations than any president since Reagan - 91 less than the modern average. The human wreckage behind the statistics is worse. 27 confirmed Senate officials resigned or were fired in the first 18 months of this term, more than double his first term and six times the average of Bush, Obama and Biden. Biden had one exit at that point. These officials waited an average of five months for approval, then stayed an average of eight months before leaving. Almost a third spent more time on the approval process than actually doing the work. The White House's excuse is that the inspection was done "more thoroughly". It's a shameful way to admit that they keep electing people who explode. This month alone, Trump's handpicked White House press secretary lasted five days before questions about her qualifications forced her out. The ambassador to Greece was pushed out because of alleged inappropriate behavior. Obviously, the test is not thorough.

Less Shackled": How Trump Turned a Staffing Crisis into a Power Seizure Donald Trump has set a record that he won't want closed on any wall: His administration has more Senate-confirmed leadership vacancies than any since Ronald Reagan — and it's entirely his own doing. Republicans control the Senate. The permits are there for the taking. Instead, the White House stopped appointing people, stopped replacing those who fled, and let the administration's machinery rot into a monument to neglect. As of this month, 249 approved positions in the Senate have no candidate at all, and another 110 candidates are sitting without approval. The Public Service Partnership, which tracks this data, called the vacancy levels "unprecedented." This isn't a case of Democrats blocking Trump's election — the Republican-controlled Senate has actually approved 95% of the nominations that reach the floor. The problem is that the nominations never come. Trump introduced just 186 names this year, down from 452 in his first year. He recorded fewer nominations than any president since Reagan - 91 less than the modern average. The human wreckage behind the statistics is worse. 27 confirmed Senate officials resigned or were fired in the first 18 months of this term, more than double his first term and six times the average of Bush, Obama and Biden. Biden had one exit at that point. These officials waited an average of five months for approval, then stayed an average of eight months before leaving. Almost a third spent more time on the approval process than actually doing the work. The White House's excuse is that the inspection was done "more thoroughly". It's a shameful way to admit that they keep electing people who explode. This month alone, Trump's handpicked White House press secretary lasted five days before questions about her qualifications forced her out. The ambassador to Greece was pushed out because of alleged inappropriate behavior. Obviously, the test is not thorough.