President-elect Donald Trump has the largest Cabinet to fill in the history of the U.S. presidency, the same number of appointments to make as his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
The Presidential Transition Team has to make about 4,000 appointments between now and Jan. 20, 2017. Of those, about 1,200 require Senate confirmation. Most of those appointments will receive little fanfare, as most of the media attention will be focused on the president-elect’s Cabinet.
If you were to listen only to the liberal mainstream media, you would think those appointments are coming at a snail’s pace. But, in fact, Trump is filling his Cabinet faster than any first-term president in the past 48 years.
Actually, he’s made more Cabinet-level appointments than the seven previous presidents—combined.
So far, Trump has made 10 Cabinet-level appointments, and six actual Cabinet nominations. The previous seven presidents-elect made a total of five Cabinet appointments at this point in the transition process; here’s how they stack up:
- Barack Obama, 2008— 1
- George W. Bush, 2000— 0
- Bill Clinton, 1992— 0
- George H.W. Bush, 1988— 4
- Ronald Reagan, 1980— 0
- Jimmy Carter, 1976— 0
- Richard Nixon, 1968— 0
The average time frame for the first Cabinet appointment to be announced is late in the fourth week or early in the fifth week. Nixon announced all of his appointments in the sixth week. Carter announced his first appointment in the fifth week.
“Bush 41,” who had just spent eight years as the vice president, announced two appointments in the first week after the election and two more in the second, but waited until the fifth week to announce any more. Clinton and “Bush 43” also announced their first appointments in the sixth week.
Obama announced his first appointment in the third week and then made weekly announcements over the next month, completing his Cabinet in the seventh week. The Left’s attacks on Trump, despite these facts, elicited a strong rebuke from Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who tweeted:
“Lots of reasons to be concerned about @realDonaldTrump transition but the pace of announcements isn’t one of them. That’s not a fair shot …”
“We hadn’t made any major appointments at this point in 2008. I don’t remember being criticized for it.”
We must remember when we listen to media reports, we’re getting them from a source that is still desperate to see Trump fail. Even if that means creating imaginary failures. {eoa}
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