Pretty Vacant...

Trump says he won't fill 'a lot' of vacant appointments

By LOUIS NELSON

President Donald Trump told Forbes in an interview published Tuesday that the size of some federal agencies is “unnecessary,” offering an explanation as to why he has left so many positions requiring a presidential appointment vacant.

“I'm generally not going to make a lot of the appointments that would normally be — because you don't need them," Trump told Forbes. "I mean, you look at some of these agencies, how massive they are, and it's totally unnecessary. They have hundreds of thousands of people."

As of last week, Trump had submitted nominations to the Senate for just 165 out of more than 600 key positions being tracked by The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, leaving 289 without a nominee. The 600 positions monitored by the Post and Partnership for Public Service make up roughly half of the 1,200 government jobs that require Senate confirmation.

Of the 165 nominations submitted by the president, 142 have been confirmed by the Senate. Trump has announced an additional six nominations that he has yet to formally submit to the Senate.

The White House has regularly said that Trump’s slow nomination pace represents an intentional effort to shrink the size of the federal government, a response to criticism that he has left key offices understaffed.