It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. Obstruction by Democrats!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017

President of the United States, Donald Trump, is angry that he does not have his full cabinet available so he can hit the ground running. According to him, this is the longest delay in history. But is this correct?

Typically, the United States cabinet is made up of 14-15 departments, and their Secretaries/Directors, or in the case of the department of Justice, the Attorney General.

Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments — the Secretaries of Agriculture(6), Commerce(7), Defense(3), Education(13), Energy(12), Health and Human Services(9), Homeland Security(15), Housing and Urban Development(10), Interior(5), Labor(8), State(1), Transportation(11), Treasury(2), and Veterans Affairs(14), as well as the department of Justice(4).

It’s been 23 days since Donald Trump took office. So far, he has seven members confirmed for their positions.

They are:

• Rex Tillerson: Department of State (Confirmed on a vote of 56 to 43 on February 1)
• Steven Mnuchin: Department of Treasury (Awaiting a floor vote. Approved by the Senate Finance Committee on February 1.)
• General James Mattis: Department of Defense (Confirmed on a vote of 98 to 1 on January 20)
• Senator Jeff Sessions: Department of Justice (Confirmed on a vote of 52-47 on February 8)
• Retired General John Kelly: Department of Homeland Security (Confirmed on a vote of 88 to 11 on January 20)
• Tom Price: Department of Health and Human Services (Confirmed on a party-line vote of 52-47 on February 10.)
• Dr Ben Carson: Department of Housing and Urban Development (Awaiting a floor vote. Approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on January 24)
• Rick Perry: Department of Energy (Awaiting a floor vote. Approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee)
• Andrew Puzder: Department of Labour
• Elaine Chao: Department of Transportation (Confirmed on a vote of 93 to 6 on January 31.)
• Betsy DeVos: Department of Education (Confirmed on a 51-50 vote on February 7, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie)
• Ryan Zinke of Montana: Department of Interior (Awaiting a floor vote. Approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on January 31.)
• Wilbur Ross: Department of Commerce (Awaiting a floor vote. Approved on January 24 by Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee)
• Sonny Perdue: Department of Agriculture
• Dr David Shulkin: Department of Veterans Affairs (

From the foregoing, out of 15 seats, only 7 have been confirmed and filled. One could say timeline wise, Trump might have good reason to complain. His predecessors fared way better than him at this point.

In summary:

However, Trump’s claim that it is the longest such delay in history to have a full cabinet is false.

Of all the five past presidents before Trump, only George W. Bush had his full cabinet in place within weeks. All the other presidents, including those who had a good start on Inauguration Day, had to wait months to get their full cabinet in place. Obama, for instance, did not have his full cabinet until his 100th day in office. HW Bush who did not have a single cabinet member confirmed Inauguration day had to wait until March to boast of a full cabinet. and Bill Clinton had to wait until March.

“Part of the reason it took so long to fit those last pieces into their cabinets is because those past presidents had to withdraw initial selections due to scandal or insurmountable political opposition. George HW Bush’s defence pick, John Tower, was voted down by the Senate. Mr Clinton swung and missed twice on attorney general before settling on Janet Reno. Mr Obama withdrew commerce nominees twice and health and human services once.”

Sure, there have been delays with Senate hearings and confirmations, which you can chalk up to the opposition doing its damnedest to slow walk Trump’s nominees, by staging walk-outs and delivering long speeches on the Senate floor. Tom Price and treasury’s Steven Mnuchin approval votes were delayed by a day because of their gimmicks. Devos and Sessions also suffered delays. Another hitch with the confirmations is that Democratic senators are voting “no” on Mr Trump’s nominees at an increasingly higher rate. Compare 111 ‘no’ votes for Trump’s nominees to 18 in president Clinton’s time and 406 (over the course of eight years) in Obama’s.

 

But President Trump also has a part to play in these delays. He was “remarkably slow to come up with several cabinet picks. Veterans Affairs nominee David Shulkin was not announced until 11 January.  Sonny Perdue for the Department of Agriculture was only disclosed on 18th January.  Furthermore, some of Trump’s picks had challenges with their background checks  (Pudzer, Devos, Ross) and a very good number of them lack government experience. Democratic Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York described Trump’s nominees as “a historically unqualified Cabinet.” In fact, in some instances, some of the nominees actively worked against the agencies they have been picked to run and some wanted those agencies scrapped at some point.  Rick Perry falls into the latter category.

Trump needs to save his breath for the battles ahead: 8 more candidates to go and a Democratic minority that is united to oppose Trump every step of the way, the same way Republicans did under Obama.

Who knows, he might actually make history.