4/25/2019

DEFENSE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A quarter of the Pentagon’s most senior civilian posts remain filled by temporary personnel who are unconfirmed by the Senate – a high number that has slowed decisions, handicapped the department in policy disputes and shifted more power to the White House, according to recently departed Pentagon officials. Including acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, who has served in a temporary capacity for an unprecedented 115 days, nine of the Pentagon’s 45 secretaries, deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, deputy undersecretaries, and assistant secretaries are serving in an acting capacity or fall into a related category of officials who are ‘performing the duties of’ the position, according to a POLITICO review. The problem is most acute in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where Shanahan is one of eight such unconfirmed officials out of 24, including his civilian number two. The department’s number three civilian job, the chief management officer, is also filled on an acting basis. President Donald Trump himself has said that he prefers having top officials in his administration serving in a placeholder capacity because it gives him ‘more flexibility.”‘

Wesley Morgan, “Trump leaves Pentagon power vacuum,” Politico, April 25, 2019 1:59 pm