Trump has had 65% turnover in his cabinet in 2 years
by digby
What happened to all these people?
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was replaced by Mike Pompeo after repeated disagreements with Trump.
VA Secretary David Shulkin was a holdover from the Obama administration and among the first to go.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced out, never able to make Trump happy after recusing himself from the Russia investigation.EPA Director Scott Pruitt was let go after an increasing number of scandals and investigations.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had similar problems.White House chief of staff John Kelly left, after months of frustration and losing the President’s faith.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley left with her reputation intact. She got a sendoff from Trump.
Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned in spectacular fashion, with a not subtle letter after disagreeing with the President’s foreign policy regarding the military.Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the newly elevated House speaker will be behind him and a new Democratic majority, the most diverse Congress in history, will be before him.
Who are the new Cabinet members?
Several Cabinet secretaries have switched jobs. Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney is now also acting chief of staff. Mike Pompeo moved from CIA director to secretary of state. Several of the departed secretaries have not been permanently replaced. Andrew Wheeler has been nominated as Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
William Barr has been nominated as attorney general. He would replace acting AG Matthew Whitaker. Heather Nauert has been nominated to be US ambassador to the United Nations, but that position has been removed from the Cabinet.
Robert Wilkie was confirmed to be veterans affairs secretary. Acting Secretary of the Interior David Berhnardt has been nominated to permanently fill that post as well.
Patrick Shanahan was elevated to be the acting defense secretary since Mattis left the administration. No one has yet been nominated to lead the Pentagon on a more permanent basis.
Trump’s Cabinet has undergone more turnover than any other President in recent memory, according to data compiled by Brookings Institution researchers. They tabulate that 65% of his top aides have been replaced at least once.
That’s more turnover for Trump in two years than President George W. Bush saw in eight years. It’s not much less than Bill Clinton (73%) and Barack Obama (71%) saw in eight years.
Trump says he prefers to have “acting” cabinet members because it gives him more flexibility. This is stupid, of course. These are important jobs and his vaunted “gut” and “very big brain” are incapable of running the government single-handedly. They don’t even do a good job of running his twitter feed.
Someone also needs to tell him that the constitution requires Senate confirmation of these people.
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