President Trump pushed back Thursday on concerns about a lack of nominees for key positions at the State Department, arguing it wouldn’t affect his agenda.
“Let me tell you, the one that matters is me, I’m the only one that matters because when it comes to it that’s what the policy is going to be. We don’t need all the people that they want. Don’t forget, I’m a business person and I tell my people, well you don’t need to fill slots, don’t fill them,” Trump said on Fox News.
Among the empty top positions at the State Department are also the officials overseeing Southeast Asia and arms control. According to an appointee tracker from The Washington Post ad Partnership for Public Service, the number of Trump’s appointments confirmed by the Senate by now is the smallest compared tp the number of officials that previous four presidents had managed to appoint during the same period. Trump blames the Senate Democrats, even though he says that he is focused on nominating fewer people, The Hill reports.
“We’re filling up roles. And, don’t forget, Schumer and the Democrats are just obstructing. You can’t get anything through. We have almost about half the number of people coming through as Obama had. They are obstructing. We have to get our people in. But in addition to that, we don’t need all of the people, you know, it’s called cost saving … There’s nothing wrong with cost saving,” Trump said.
He added that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was working hard and doing his best. Tillerson is reorganizing the State Department in order to meet the goal of the White House for reduction of the budget by 30 percent. Trump thinks that there’s nothing wrong in the decision not to appoint nominees for some positions in the State Department.
“We have some people that I’m not happy with their thinking process,” the president said.
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