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Trump Cabinet

The Cabinet of the United States (Wikipedia) is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States, who are generally the heads of the federal executive departments.

Cabinet members

Cabinet-level officials

Other high-level administration officials

Resignations and Dismissals

Rejected or Withdrawn Appointments

Timeline

2017Many Trump cabinet nominees have made political contributions to lawmakers voting on their appointments. opensecrets.org (See also Conflicts of Interest)
2017.01.04Despite Trump's Campaign promise to "Drain the Swamp" nearly one third of his transition team have connections to the Koch Brothers billion dollar political and financial network. medium.com
2017.01.06National Council of Churches condemns Trump's nominees and attacks on the social safety net. nationalcouncilofchurches.us
2017.01.07A top ethics official has warned against plans to confirm Trump's cabinet choices before background examinations are complete. washingtonpost.com (See also Conflicts of Interest)
2017.01.07A top ethics official warns that plans to confirm Trump's Cabinet choices before background checks are complete is unprecedented. washingtonpost.com (See also Conflicts of Interest)
2017.01.07Senate Confirmation Hearings to Begin Without All Background Checks mobile.nytimes.com
The leader of the Office of Government Ethics said he knew of no occasion when the Senate had held a confirmation hearing before his office completed its review.
2017.01.08Former Obama Ethics Czar posts an old letter from Mitch McConnell to Harry Reid demanding "Financial disclosures must be complete... prior to hearings being scheduled." twitter.com (See also Conflicts of Interest)
2017.01.09A guide to this week's confirmation hearings: Jeff Sessions, Rex Tillerson and more pbs.org
2017.01.10GOP Senator: ‘Yeah,’ Trump’s Cabinet Picks Should Be Treated Differently talkingpointsmemo.com
Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said flat-out on Monday that Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees should be subject to less exacting vetting standards than those of previous administrations despite having demanded full compliance with the law in the case
2017.01.10Trump's cabinet nominees donated money to senators responsible for reviewing their appointments. wsj.com (See also Jeff Sessions, Conflicts of Interest, Tom Price, Mike Pompeo, Dan Coats, Mike Mulvaney)
2017.01.11Full Schedule of Cabinet hearings and what to look for. upi.com
2017.01.11Who's in Donald Trump's Cabinet? theatlantic.com
2017.01.17Ethics paperwork still missing for Trump's billionaire Cabinet picks. cnn.com (See also Federal Departments, Conflicts of Interest)
2017.01.17Rebecca Leber: Tillerson only intends to stay away from State decisions benefiting Exxon for one year. twitter.com (See also Rex Tillerson, Conflicts of Interest)
2017.01.30White house releases statement that Senate Democrats are obstructing President Trump’s nominees. whitehouse.gov (See also First 100 Days, Assaults on Government)
2017.01.31Progressives cheer Democratic obstruction — and aim at Supreme Court washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days)
2017.02.26Philip Bilden withdraws from nomination as Secretary of the Navy to avoid conflicts of interest. nytimes.com (See also Rejected or Withdrawn Appointments, Conflicts of Interest)
2017.03.10U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee votes overwhelmingly in favor of Trump's national intelligence director nominee, former Republican Senator Dan Coats, sending his nomination to the Senate floor. reuters.com (See also First 100 Days, Dan Coats)
2017.06.17Republicans won't work for the Trump administration. washingtonpost.com (See also Administration Errors, Federal Departments)
Trump has 43 confirmed appointees to senior posts, compared with the 151 top political appointees confirmed by mid-June in President Barack Obama’s first term and the 130 under President George W. Bush, according to data tracked by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition.
2017.06.29The Trump administration has appointed an activist who led a campaign to restrict bathroom access for transgender students to the office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in the US Agency for International Development. buzzfeed.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, LGBTQIA)
2017.07.18Trump on Monday the controversial toxicologist Michael Dourson, who self-publishes science-inspired Bible books, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency’s work on chemical safety and pollution prevention. buzzfeed.com (See also Environmental Protection Agency, Assaults on Government, Assaults on Facts)
Dourson “writes books matching science and Biblical text,” according to his Twitter profile on Tuesday afternoon.
2017.07.27White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said that he doesn't know if his relationship with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus can be repaired, and he urged Priebus to publicly prove that he has not leaked damaging information to the media. washingtonpost.com (See also Reince Priebus, Unprecedented Actions)
2017.07.27With a set of explicit tirades, the new White House communications director attacked Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and threatened to fire the entire communications staff. newyorker.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Attempts to Discredit Media)
2017.07.28Trump ousted White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and replaced him with Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, after only 6 months. washingtonpost.com (See also Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Department of Homeland Security)
2017.07.31Trump formally installed John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, as his White House chief of staff. washingtonpost.com (See also John Kelly, Department of Homeland Security, Reince Priebus)
2017.07.31Trump has relieved Anthony Scaramucci from his role as communications director, just 10 days after initially naming Scaramucci to the role. mic.com (See also John Kelly, Unprecedented Actions)
2017.08.04The Senate blocked Trump from being able to make recess appointments on Thursday as lawmakers leave Washington for their August break. thehill.com (See also Jeff Sessions)
2017.08.25Sebastian Gorka, a controversial White House staffer who served as a fiery spokesman for Trump on national security matters, abruptly left the administration. washingtonpost.com (See also Steve Bannon, John Kelly, Nationalism)
2017.09.27Despite what Donald Trump says publicly, the tax plan that his administration outlined is a potentially huge windfall for the wealthiest Americans - including Trump and his cabinet - would not directly benefit the bottom third of the population, and provide mixed to modest results for the middle class. nytimes.com (See also False Statements, Trump Taxes, Economy)
2017.11.02Sam Clovis, an early backer backer of President Donald Trump caught up in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, has withdrawn his nomination to be a top official in the Agriculture Department. bloomberg.com (See also Department of Agriculture, Russian Meddling in Election, Assaults on Government, Resignations and Dismissals)
It should be noted that Mr. Clovis had no scientific background.
2017.11.15This is a listing of everyone who has left the Trump administration talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com (See also Fact-Checking Resources, Federal Departments)
2017.11.30The White House has developed a plan to force out Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, whose relationship with Donald Trump has been strained, and replace him with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, perhaps within the next several weeks. nytimes.com (See also Rex Tillerson, Department of State, Mike Pompeo)
A transition plan would install Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, as secretary of state, and tap Senator Tom Cotton to lead the spy agency.
2017.12.05The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Kirstjen M. Nielsen as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, installing a close confidant of White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly to lead the federal agency responsible for carrying out many of Donald Trump’s most ambitious domestic policy plans. washingtonpost.com (See also John Kelly, Department of Homeland Security)
2018.01.08The White House is considering finding a role for Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump’s first pick for labor secretary, who withdrew his nomination in February after old allegations of domestic abuse resurfaced. politico.com (See also Women, Reversals)
2018.02.14Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary’s wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency’s inspector general has found. washingtonpost.com (See also False Statements, Department of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin)
Shulkin is one of five current and former Trump administration Cabinet members under investigation by agency inspectors general over their travel expenses.
2018.02.15Nearly a year into Donald Trump's administration, senior-level staffers -- including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Rob Porter -- remained on interim clearances, along with more than 100 staffers in the Executive Office, even as other senior advisers were granted full security access. cnn.com (See also Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Administration Errors)
2018.02.16After less than 13 months, more than 40 percent of the people Trump originally picked for Cabinet-level jobs have faced ethical or other controversies. washingtonpost.com (See also Administration Errors, Corruption, Conflicts of Interest, Tom Price, Ryan Zinke, Steven Mnuchin, John Kelly, Jeff Sessions, Ben Carson)
2018.03.19White House chief of staff John Kelly has tapped Chris Liddell, a senior White House aide and former executive at Microsoft and General Motors, as his deputy. politico.com (See also John Kelly)
2018.06.27Bill Shine, who was forced out as co-president at Fox News last May for his handling of sexual harassment scandals at the network, is expected to be offered the job of White House communications director, which has been vacant since Hope Hicks left the job in March. nytimes.com (See also Women, Misogyny)
2018.07.05Donald Trump has hired former Fox News executive Bill Shine to lead his communications team, who was forced out of Fox News in May 2017 over his handling of sexual harassment claims at the company. politico.com (See also Women, Misogyny)
2018.09.18Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao flew on Federal Aviation Administration planes rather than commercial flights on seven occasions between January and August 2017, newly released records show — including one flight to and around Europe that cost taxpayers an estimated $68,892 for her and five staffers. politico.com (See also Corruption, Elaine Chao, Department of Transportation)
All told, Chao's flights on the FAA planes cost an estimated $93,977.84, the records show.

Assessments

Evan Osnos – The New Yorker

On Jan. 10, 2016, Osnos examined Republican efforts to sidestep basic vetting and procedure in confirmation hearings.

"But the most remarkable thing about McConnell’s desire to “get past” the process of vetting before the vetting has happened is not what it says about his commitment to political tribalism above all other values. That was already well-established, after all. No, the truly remarkable story it reveals involves the sheer recklessness of the incoming Administration. The vetting process is not, as some of Trump’s neophyte advisers might suspect, just a ritual performed for weak-kneed “goo-goos,” the good-government types in comfortable shoes. On the contrary, it is meant to be a cold-eyed political demolition derby: a controlled explosion that can protect an Administration by preventing a problem appointee from getting inside the inner sanctum."