America


Congressional Roadblock


Trump nominees face longest confirmation


delays on record, says Judith Miller.


U


nlike his first chaotic presidential transition, Donald J. Trump was more than ready to assume offi ce


and implement his agenda in 2025 as the nation’s 47th president. In the fi rst 100 days of his second administration, Trump nominated a record 292 people to offi ce — four times as many nominations as he made in his fi rst term, and more than three times as many as George W. or George H.W. Bush made as president. In the next 100 days, the breakneck


pace of appointments slowed some- what, but after 200 days in offi ce, he had still made more nominations than any other modern president. But Trump has had far too little to


show for this preparedness and speed. His record number of nominations has not resulted in confi rmations by the Senate. As of Labor Day, over 130 nominees


were still awaiting Senate confi rma- tion, with some offi cials estimating the backlog at over 140.


As a result, Trump nominees now


face the longest average confi rmation delays on record. According to data from the Partner-


ship for Public Service, a Washington- based nonprofi t that provides transi- tion guidance, former President Joe Biden’s nominees needed an average of 121 days in committee, plus another 70 days on the Senate fl oor to be con- fi rmed — or 15 times longer than nomi- nees in the fi rst Bush administration. Trump’s nominees are experiencing even greater delays in being vetted, scheduled for committee hearings, and being voted upon in the Senate — 74% longer than the delays nominees faced in his fi rst term. Over 1,300 of the 4,000 political


posts a president is expected to fi ll now require Senate confi rmation, a number that has also continued to grow over time. Jenny Mattingley, Partnership vice


president of government aff airs, said that persistent vacancies in top jobs are bound to “slow agencies’ decision- making and strategic planning, nega- tively aff ect employee morale, and put other leadership decisions on hold.” Presidential analysts attribute the


growing confi rmation backlog to the fact that the process itself has become increasingly politicized over time, thanks to actions by both Republi-


GOP Could Change Rules But it would backfire on them when they’re in minority.


F


rustrated by the backlog, Senate Majority Leader


John Thune has been exploring ways to change the Senate’s rules to speed the confirmation process, with


14 NEWSMAX | OCTOBER 2025


or without the consent of Democrats. Senate rule changes, which


normally require the approval of 67 senators, are designed to be dif icult to alter. Doing so


cans and Democrats. Given the exceptionally poisonous


political atmosphere between both parties in the second Trump admin- istration, the use of confi rmations as a partisan battleground for political and policy disputes has intensifi ed. Frustrated by their inability to block


Trump’s most controversial nominees, given the GOP’s Senate majority, Dem- ocrats are now using some of the same tactics and Senate rules that Republi- cans used during the Biden adminis- tration to drag out the process. For their part, Democrats say that


their increased scrutiny of nominees is justifi ed because so many of Trump’s picks are unqualifi ed for their posts, have been nominated despite incom- plete background checks by the FBI and reviews by the Offi ce of Govern- ment Ethics, or have failed to com-


with a simple-majority vote, which both Democrats and Republicans have occasionally done and regretted, is sometimes called the “nuclear option” because it’s viewed as an extreme tactic. Although some


Republicans seem ready to go “nuclear” over what they see as the Democrats’ unfair slow-rolling of the approval of


noncontroversial nominees, others, such as Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine, have expressed concern about upending the Senate rules on a partisan basis and diminishing their own authority.


While the GOP now has a majority both in the House


KAYLA BARTKOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES


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