Presidential lethargy, not Democratic obstinacy, is to blame

IT IS almost as if Republicans did not control both Congress and the White House. President Donald Trump has struggled to carry out one of his basic duties, which is to fill government posts. The president blames supposedly obstinate Senate Democrats, against whom he regularly rages on Twitter. “Dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors. They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals”, he fumed on June 5th. “They can’t win so all they do is slow down & obstruct!”, he added on July 11th.

Mr Trump’s administration has yet to get around to nominating many of the officials who run the federal government. Up until July 15th, Mr Trump had put 210 names to the Senate for consideration, according to numbers provided by the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan group that tracks bureaucratic hiring. The data do not count military or judicial appointments. At the same point in their presidencies, Barack Obama had put forward 369 names, George W. Bush had 315 and Bill Clinton had 275.

It is true that the Senate has taken, on average, 45 days to confirm one of Mr Trump’s nominees compared with 37 days to confirm one of Mr Obama’s. That difference does not account for the vast discrepancy in confirmations—49 for Mr Trump compared with 203 for Mr Obama by July 2009. Part of the problem is that the majority of Mr Trump’s nominees were submitted in the past two months—while the Senate was consumed with a health-care bill to replace Obamacare.

Transitions of power are messy: a new administration must pick 4,000 new political appointees, nearly 1,200 of whom must be confirmed by the Senate. Neglecting to do so leaves hollowed-out agencies without critical staff. At the State Department only two of 26 senior posts have been filled. Twenty-two of the 24 unfilled posts, like under-secretary for arms control, do not yet have a nominee. Important ambassadorial postings, like in Saudi Arabia and South Korea, are unfilled. Things are only a little better at the Department of Defence, where just five of 18 senior posts have been filled.