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Others Donald Trump the administration will begin with fewer key personnel than when Trump entered the White House the first time eight years ago, with only a quarter of the political appointments done and ready to go when he is sworn in as 47th President of the United States on Monday.
The Independent has learned that only 1,000 people have been hired to fill a fraction of the 4,000 important presidential appointees at the top of the federal bureaucracy, many of which can be appointed without requiring Senate confirmation. That’s roughly 300 fewer than the number of appointees during Trump’s chaotic 2016-2017 transition efforts.
This means that a large number of people who expect to be given a place in the new administration are still waiting for the call to find out where they might be assigned as the preparations for the transition descend into chaos.
A number of factors are believed to have led to the appointment being delayed, including a combination of arguments over senior positions in Trump’s cabinet, people being offered jobs they didn’t want and questions about federal salaries compared to higher private sector salaries.
However, it is not uncommon for some new administrations to have trouble filling political appointees. As of Jan. 20, the Biden administration had just 1,136 policy appointees, but Biden administration officials attributed the slow pace to Trump’s refusal to allow his administration to be associated with the 2020-2021 transition effort. who stood by the victorious Biden campaign.
Trump began lining up picks for his top Cabinet-level roles shortly after winning last year’s presidential election, and his transition has boasted the speed with which he picked his Cabinet, despite a brief setback caused by the withdrawal of his original pick for attorney general, former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz hit by scandals.
Gaetz stepped down after Trump nominated him for the role of attorney general as questions arose about his personal life, but the president-elect quickly replaced him with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
There were serious questions about the nominations of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for a top security role, among others, and none of Trump’s Cabinet picks will be in place when he is sworn in tomorrow.
But threats to block nominations are not the only reason the process has slowed to a crawl.
While the president-elect also made heavy use of his Truth Social platform to announce a number of less prominent picks for what are known as “sub-Cabinet” roles, most of the jobs that will be filled by people who will do the day-to-day work of overseeing federal civil servants remain unfilled.
One person high up on Trump’s team who is still waiting for a job described himself as “relaxed” as they wait for whatever role they end up with, but noted that it “could take a while.”
Another one that was involved in the the controversial plan of Project 2025run by the Heritage Foundation, she was asked to fill three different foreign relations roles but declined because of the low salary offered.
They mentioned that they would have to reduce their salary by 40 percent.
“It’s nice to be asked, but public sector salaries are shit,” said one individual.
Another close to the inner circle of the newly elected president said The Independent: “I was offered a role but it wasn’t right for me, so he’ll come back with something more suitable.”
Even roles in key areas related to national security remained unfilled during the transition process despite Trump’s quick selection of Florida Congressman Mike Waltz as his national security adviser and Senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state.
Walz promised that the new administration’s National Security Council will be staffed only by people who fully support Trump’s agenda.
But one GOP foreign policy expert who spoke The Independent he said hiring under Waltz and Rubio progressed at a snail’s pace because only people within “a certain D.C. foreign policy clique” were able to get offers.
The staffing problems facing the new administration stand in stark contrast to the bravado of Trump allies over the past four years as they worked to build what they described as a massive staffing effort in the form of a massive database of potential hires.
The database, part of the Heritage Foundation’s now-infamous Project 2025, was meant to be a way for a future president to have a list of people he could quickly appoint.
But a source familiar with the transition effort said the Project 2025 database and others like it were largely ignored by Trump’s new chief of staff, Sergio Gore, a former low-level Fox News producer turned publishing executive.
Trump’s decision to abandon any cooperation with the outgoing Biden administration weeks after winning the election, including signing a memorandum of understanding to authorize background checks for incoming staff by the FBI, also contributed to the hiring woes.
Multiple spokespeople for the Trump transition declined to comment The Independent when asked to estimate how many staff would be in place when Trump is sworn in.