President Donald Trump said Tuesday morning that he has purposely left positions at federal agencies open, claiming that many of these posts are superfluous and keep the government too large.
“We are not looking to fill all of those positions. Don’t need many of them – reduce size of government,” the president tweeted Tuesday in response a comment made by “Fox and Friends” host, Laura Ingraham.
Ingraham said Tuesday morning that the extensive damage Hurricane Harvey caused in Texas is proof of how urgently the administration needs to fill open positions at agencies that deal with disaster relief.
“I think we can all look at these horrific pictures, and we can conclude a federal government does need staff. We see it acutely in need of staff in a situation like this,” Ingraham said Tuesday. “We’re facing a crisis of confidence across the country where people wonder—even with President Trump in, he said he was going to drain the swamp—can we have a government that works for the people and not just have a people enslaved to the government?”
Out of the 591 positions that require Senate confirmation, only 117 have been filled. Another 106 await Senate confirmation, with an additional 366 currently standing without a nominee in place.
Send tips to robert@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.