JENNY BETH MARTIN: Trump Deserves To Have His Nominees Confirmed Quickly

President-elect Donald Trump is moving fast and breaking things. Since winning three weeks ago, he has moved quickly to name the cabinet and senior White House staff he wants working to enact his second-term agenda. As only the second Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote since the 1980s, he has a strong mandate — and, consequently, he deserves to have his nominees confirmed quickly.

Trump did not wait long to begin naming names, especially when compared to his predecessor. In his own transition, President Joe Biden had only named one person to his team as of Nov. 11, 2020 — his White House chief of staff. Biden didn’t name another advisor until almost two weeks later, when, on Nov. 23, 2020, he announced his choices to serve as the secretaries of State and Homeland Security, and his nominees to serve as director of national intelligence and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

By contrast, Trump has already named 17 nominees who will need Senate confirmation, from his selections to run the departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security to his choices to run the departments of the Interior, Energy, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, among others.

Moreover, Trump has already named his director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as well as his ambassadors to the United Nations, Israel and NATO.

Further, Trump has named his senior White House staff — including his chief of staff, four deputy chiefs of staff, national security advisor, a “border czar,” White House counsel, communications director, press secretary, staff secretary and director of presidential personnel.

And though we are not sure where exactly in the org chart they are going to go, he has also named his co-directors of the new Department of Government Efficiency, which will help him wrangle the executive branch.