The gutting was part of Pence installing more campaign people in these slots and pushing aside members of the existing transition structure that’s been working on the federal agency issues for months. Pence guts roster of Trump policy teams

Vice-president elect Mike Pence has gutted the transition’s so-called "landing teams," the people responsible for going into federal agencies and helping to reshape them under a Trump administration, according to one source inside the transition and one downtown lobbyist close to it.

The gutting was part of Pence installing more campaign people in these slots and pushing aside members of the existing transition structure that’s been working on the federal agency issues for months. Overall, there were 25 landing teams, according to a recent Trump transition org chart. Of roughly 200 team members, it’s unclear how many have been ousted.

This seriously complicates the efforts to hand off power and further stalls the work of setting up a Trump-led government. And, this means that agencies from the Department of Homeland Security, Treasury, or HHS have to wait even longer for directives from Team Trump. These are agencies that the Trump administration will have to work with closely if they want to make tougher immigration laws; pass a tax reform package through Congress; or dismantle Obamacare— all vows that Trump made on the campaign trail.

“It certainly does slow down the transition’s progress,” one source inside the transition team said.

It also means it will be tougher for Pence, now leading the transition effort, to deliver on one aide’s promise that the landing teams would arrive at federal agencies “imminently” — even as early as Friday, and it’s another sign of discord in a transition effort that, according to multiple reports, is struggling for stability.