Draining the swampy Washington bureaucracy is hard, and President Trump also is still having trouble filling his administration with appointees who share his vision for reshaping government.
As of mid-December, Mr. Trump had nominated 496 people for various posts in his administration. That is 140 fewer than President Obama nominated by the same point in his first year and 232 fewer than George W. Bush by the same date in his presidency.
Although he is behind on overall nominations, Mr. Trump is ahead of his predecessors on filling positions in departments such as Defense and Justice, showing his prioritizing of national security and law enforcement.
Senate confirmations of Mr. Trump’s executive branch nominees also are running far behind the paces of his predecessors. The Senate had confirmed 261 of the president’s nominees by mid-December, compared with 418 under Mr. Obama and 483 for Mr. Bush.
Some analysts say the slower pace of nominations and confirmations undermines Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”
“This is really odd for somebody who promised to bring change to Washington — to leave the government empty, on autopilot,” said Elaine Kamarck, director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. “You get the status quo. If you want to drain the swamp and change the vast federal government, you’ve got to get control of it in order to understand it.” ...
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