Do you think Trump has any intention of filling vacancies in his administration?

When President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May, he pledged to move quickly to find a replacement. He kept that promise, taking less than a month to announce that he had chosen former federal prosecutor Christopher Wray to fill the job. But it took Trump nearly another three weeks — until last Monday — to formally send Wray’s name to the Senate for approval.

Wray’s nomination isn’t the only one moving slowly. Five months into his presidency, Trump lags far behind his predecessors in filling senior positions in his administration, a delay that some experts say is holding back Trump’s agenda. As of June 28, nominees for 46 out of 561 key jobs in the Trump administration had been confirmed by the Senate, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. That’s far fewer positions than had been filled by the previous four presidents at this point in their administrations. At the same time in his first term, President Obama had appointed (and the Senate had confirmed) 183 people.

Trump has repeatedly blamed Senate Democrats for holding up his appointments. It’s true that the Senate has moved somewhat more slowly to confirm Trump’s nominees than it did to confirm Obama’s: 43 days on average for Trump versus 35 days for Obama. But the bigger problem is that Trump has put forward far fewer nominees than past presidents had at this point in their terms. The Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post are tracking key appointments that require Senate confirmation; as of Friday, 384 of the 564 positions had no formal nominee and 130 had been nominated but not confirmed. Four appointments had been announced by Trump but not yet submitted to the Senate.

The piece is written by a contributor who used his nonprofit, OpenTheBooks.com, to assess the savings Trump is projected to have compared to Obama.

On Friday, White House released its annual report to Congress detailing the names, statuses and salaries of 377 employees.

The findings, according to Forbes, suggest Trump's administration employs 100 fewer staff members than his predecessor, President Barack Obama, which could ultimately yield $5.1 million in payroll savings when compared to fiscal 2015 under Obama.
First lady Melania Trump's office is staffed with five staffers, compared to the reported 24 staffers who served Michelle Obama in her first year in 2009.

LooseGoose wrote:Or he's looking for stories like this...

Trump's lean payroll could save taxpayers as much as $22M: report

The piece is written by a contributor who used his nonprofit, OpenTheBooks.com, to assess the savings Trump is projected to have compared to Obama.

On Friday, White House released its annual report to Congress detailing the names, statuses and salaries of 377 employees.

The findings, according to Forbes, suggest Trump's administration employs 100 fewer staff members than his predecessor, President Barack Obama, which could ultimately yield $5.1 million in payroll savings when compared to fiscal 2015 under Obama.
First lady Melania Trump's office is staffed with five staffers, compared to the reported 24 staffers who served Michelle Obama in her first year in 2009.

Turtleneck wrote:

LooseGoose wrote:Or he's looking for stories like this...

Trump's lean payroll could save taxpayers as much as $22M: report

I doubt he genuinely cares all that much about saving the tax payers money.

The long run consequences, especially in the state department and department of defense, could be very costly.

LooseGoose wrote:Because you doubt his motives doesn't make the savings cease to exist.

LooseGoose wrote:Amazing how you don't doubt his bad motives but you do doubt his good ones.

For present purposes, however, let’s leave aside the policy problems raised by the large number of Executive Branch roles that remain unfilled. And let’s consider an antecedent question: Is the president legally permitted to deliberately depopulate the Executive Branch?

GRR Spartan wrote:Saving money?

The US Military is spending $130,000 per month for space at Trump Tower
So good we have such a good fiscal conservative who is getting rent money from the Federal government.

It will be a bit over $4M in rent for 40+ months.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/the-military-is-dropping-usd130-000-for-a-trump-tower-rental.html