As of last week, President Donald Trump Trump had submitted nominations to the Senate for just 165 out of more than 600 key positions being tracked by The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Trump says he won't fill 'a lot' of vacant appointments

President Donald Trump told Forbes in an interview published Tuesday that the size of some federal agencies is “unnecessary,” offering an explanation as to why he has left vacant so many positions that would require a presidential appointment.

“I'm generally not going to make a lot of the appointments that would normally be — because you don't need them," Trump told Forbes. "I mean, you look at some of these agencies, how massive they are, and it's totally unnecessary. They have hundreds of thousands of people."


According to a database maintained by The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service that monitors roughly 600 key positions, 142 of Trump's nominees have been confirmed by the Senate and an additional 165 who have been formally nominated await confirmation. Trump has announced an additional six nominations that he has yet to formally submit to the Senate.

The 600 positions monitored by the Post and Partnership for Public Service make up roughly half of the 1,200 government jobs that require Senate confirmation.

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The White House has regularly said that the slow pace of Trump’s nominations represents an intentional effort to shrink the size of the federal government, a response to criticism that he has left key offices understaffed.

