President Joe Biden came into office with most of his Cabinet members ready to go, but he also made appointments for positions lower in the chain of command, ridding the government of Trump appointees in positions that would normally stay to smooth the transition, the New York Times reports.
The Trump Administrations took months to fill certain positions, failing to even present nominees for certain key, upper-level jobs, sometimes two years into his four-year term, whether the job needed Senate confirmation or not. According to the Washington Post tracker, more than 200 jobs of the top 700 were empty at the end Trump’s administration, with no pending nomination.
On his first full day in office, Biden swore in about one thousand political appointees for jobs that did not require Senate confirmation, immediately ejecting Trump appointees who had minor but key jobs for implementing Biden’s policies.
The situation with Trump got more complicated as turnover in the Trump Administration was historic, with more than 40% of Cabinet-level positions having more than three people in them during Trump’s four years.
Biden, on the other hand, has nominees for every Cabinet position one week into his term, according to the Post tracker. Of the 129 holdovers from the Trump administration, most are in positions where they are granted terms or serve as inspectors general for departments or agencies. Some are completing 10-year terms after being appointed during the Obama Administration.
Biden has also taken steps to relieve some people Trump appointed in his last days to career positions. For example, Michael Ellis, who was installed as general counsel for the National Security Agency after a questionable hiring practice, was immediately placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the rationale for hiring him.
As presidential historian Michael Beschloss noted, Biden’s appointments will be more difficult and more consequential given his duty to rebuild the government and restore trust in its function.
“In making appointments as a new president, Biden has a much tougher job than Trump,” Beschloss told the Times. “It’s harder to rebuild a government than it is to ransack, demoralize and hollow a government out.”