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Trump’s incredibly empty Cabinet

Expand chart
Data: FiveThirtyEight, department websites; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

No president in recent history has started their tenure with as many extended Cabinet vacancies as President Trump.

Why it matters: Trump has been happy to fill many of the positions with "acting" officials, saying it "gives me more flexibility." But it adds instability when so many departments are without permanent leaders — and acting secretaries don't go through the scrutiny and vetting that they'd get with Senate confirmation.

Trump has already racked up more than four times as many days with a vacant Cabinet position as any other president since Ronald Reagan at this point in their presidencies.

  • The White House chief of staff and vice president don't require Senate confirmation, but the other Cabinet positions do.

By the numbers: In the past six presidencies:

  • There have been 29 individual cabinet vacancies in the time that Trump has been in office.
  • Thirteen of them have been under Trump.
  • His administration has also had the seven longest vacancies in the comparable timeframe.

Trump's longest vacancies:

  • EPA administrator: 237 days between Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler.
  • UN Ambassador: 157 days since Nikki Haley left (Jonathan Cohen currently acting).
  • White House chief of staff: 157 days since John Kelly left (Mick Mulvaney currently acting).
  • Secretary of Defense: 157 days since Jim Mattis left (Trump says he'll nominate Patrick Shanahan).
  • Secretary of Homeland Security: 131 days between John Kelly and Kirstjen Nielsen (Kevin McAleenan currently acting).
  • Secretary of Veteran Affairs: 124 days between David Shulkin and Robert Wilkie.
  • Secretary of Health and Human Services: 122 days between Tom Price and Alex Azar.

The longest vacancies overall:

  • Office of Management and Budget director: 465 days between Jack Lew and Sylvia Burwell under Barack Obama.
  • UN Ambassador: 385 days between Bill Richardson and Richard Holbrooke under Bill Clinton.
  • Secretary of Commerce: 370 days between John Bryson and Penny Pritzker under Obama.
  • Administrator of the Small Business Administration: 357 days between James Sanders and James Abdnor under Ronald Reagan.
  • U.S. Trade Representative: 340 days between Mickey Kantor and Charlene Barshefsky under Clinton.
Expand chart
Data: FiveThirtyEight, department websites; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

Go deeper

Bryan Walsh, author of Future
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Cracks in nuclear command and control

An atomic bomb test in Nevada in 1957. Photo: © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to members on Friday that she's spoken to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley about preventing President Trump from accessing the nuclear codes.

Why it matters: Pelosi's message surfaced an uncomfortable reality about America's nuclear control structure: if the president wants to use nukes, there is no clear way to stop him.

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Axios
Updated 1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

  1. Vaccine: Biden to release nearly all available vaccine doses to the public — Why some experts want to relax vaccine prioritization — Fauci says COVID variants threaten some treatments more than vaccines.
  2. Politics: Manchin says he will "absolutely not" support $2,000 stimulus checks — Biden's one-two stimulus punch.
  3. Economy: U.S. markets unbothered by Capitol insurrection— Job losses suggest labor market's "dark days" could return.
  4. World: U.K. reports highest daily COVID-19 death toll since start of the pandemic and approves Moderna's vaccine for emergency use — Countries begin to line up for Chinese and Russian vaccines.
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Oriana Gonzalez
2 hours ago - Economy & Business

Boeing passenger jet missing after departure from Jakarta

A crew-only area for Indonesian carrier Sriwijaya Air is seen at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport on January 9, after contact with Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 bound for Pontianak from Jakarta was lost and feared to have crashed into the sea shortly after take-off. Photo: DEMY SANJAYA / Getty Images

A Sriwijaya Air passenger jet is missing after taking off from Jakarta and losing contact with air traffic controllers on Saturday just minutes after departure.

The state of play: The last contact between the control tower and the plane, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, was around 2:40 p.m. local time, Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawait said, per the AP. The Boeing 737-500 was en route to Pontianak on the island of Borneo. Multiple reports indicate there were 62 people on board including crew members.

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