The United States has:
- An acting Secretary of Defense
- An acting Secretary of Homeland Security
- An acting White House chief of staff
- An acting Secretary of the Interior
And the “acting” status may not change for some of the positions. From the Washington Post:
On average, though, Trump’s agencies have spent much more time being led by acting directors. He’s had 388 days on average in each of the years of his presidency in which a department was led by an acting director.
So what’s behind this? One reason may be to avoid nasty Senate confirmation fights. And “acting” ends up being like a job tryout.
From Bloomberg:
“It’s now been more than a year since Trump had a full, confirmed cabinet, something he’s only had for about four and a half months of his presidency. He’s unlikely to change that any time soon.”
In the end, Kirstjen Nielsen joins a very long list of former Trump administration officials.
After Nielsen’s departure there remain only three women in Trump’s cabinet: Gina Haspel at CIA, Elaine Chao at Transportation and Betsy DeVos at Education, and DeVos is most likely the next to go.