President Donald Trump has so far failed to nominate deputies and other top officials to run the day-to-day operations at most federal agencies, creating a vacuum across the government that has businesses, lobbyists and lawmakers in limbo as they wait to see how Trump’s agenda will be carried out.

While Trump has announced nominees for his entire Cabinet, as well as key national security and White House positions, the Senate has confirmed only six nominees so far, leaving most agencies without a permanent leader.


Meanwhile, the president has named just three deputy secretaries — at the Commerce Department, Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The delay in filling these deputy and other high-level political appointee positions could have far-reaching consequences, as deputies act as the chief operating officers at federal agencies. Experts say experienced No. 2s are essential to ensuring the smooth implementation of Trump’s policy proposals.

As he rankles world leaders with his unorthodox public statements, Trump has yet to fill out the top ranks of the State Department, the agency tasked with international diplomacy. Neither the Treasury Department nor the Defense Department, both core to Trump’s economic and national security message, have deputy secretaries. And work at many less high-profile agencies — from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Education Department — has slowed as federal employees wait for their marching orders from Trump’s nominees.

Career employees at two federal agencies told POLITICO that Trump’s aides have had limited contact with them over the past two weeks because the aides don’t want to make waves before secretaries and other top leaders arrive. Senior officials at several agencies also say they haven't gotten much day-to-day guidance on what the administration wants or what will change.

“The clock is running,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that has advised the Trump transition. “It’s not as if the world waits patiently while the United States government staffs up.”

As of Friday, Trump had nominated people to just 35 of the 690 most important federal jobs that require Senate confirmation, according to an analysis conducted by Stier’s group. In total, Trump will need to fill about 4,000 politically appointed positions.

While the pace for deputies is not far behind where former President Barack Obama was at this point in 2009, Trump’s team has taken an unusually hands-on approach to selecting candidates and is intent on finding Trump loyalists. Also, Democratic senators have been ramping up their opposition to Trump’s nominees as the president has advanced controversial policies. That means many vacancies could persist for a while.

And at some agencies, longtime officials say they have no idea what to expect once Trump puts his team in place. Trump administration officials say they don't trust federal officials at many of the agencies because they believe they are loyal to former President Barack Obama. The slow pace has some lobbyists and business officials feeling as if they’re in limbo as they await guidance on major issues such as Trump’s infrastructure proposal or his health care plan.

"You work with them and you realize there is virtually no Cabinet, and there is absolutely no sub-Cabinet," one lobbyist close to the administration said. "They don't have the worker-bee people. The White House is small and it's stacked with senior people."

"You don't have these agencies slowing down the process and making it more deliberative," this person said.

Another tech executive who was seeking information after last week’s sweeping immigration and travel ban said: “I have no idea who I’d go to.”

Trump’s supporters counter that they have installed large “beachhead” teams consisting of temporary political appointees at the agencies to hold them over until formal appointments are made and the rest of the president’s nominees are greenlighted by the Senate.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

To be sure, it is difficult to build an entire government in several months. Obama’s team also struggled to fill jobs quickly at the beginning of his first term. By the end of January 2009, Obama had nominated only deputies at the State Department, Justice Department, Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget, records show.

Still, some lawmakers have begun publicly calling on Trump to speed up his nominations. “I'd love to see them as soon as possible,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters this week, referring to top spots at DOD.

The pace is in part a result of Trump’s political inexperience, a quality his supporters admire.

“If Clinton would have won, the Clintons have 30 years of collecting names — they don't have 30 years of collecting names. If Jeb would have won, they would have had all the Bush names,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump adviser. “This administration didn't have a list of names. They are truly, truly a different kind of outsiders, and it's going to take them a while to sort it out.”

The hunt for deputy secretaries and other top officials has slowed, in part, because top Trump White House aides are deeply involved in hiring. His aides are hoping to install Trump loyalists across the government, according to interviews with people in and close to the administration.

In recent months, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus has told people his power in the White House comes from stacking the West Wing and agencies with Republican operatives with ties to him.

Even some low-level jobs have needed high-level approval. For instance, White House staff have been involved in deciding who will run social media and other midlevel jobs at agencies, according to two people involved in the matter.

"Reince really cares about the personnel," one person close to him said.

While Gov. Chris Christie and his transition team provided hundreds of names to the transition before he was removed as leader, many top aides didn’t expect Trump to win. After Trump’s victory, Trump’s team put the process of staffing the agencies largely on hold for several weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump’s staffers “weren't heavily focused on people below the Cabinet level during the transition. They just weren't,” one person familiar with the operation said.

A senior administration official said the White House often makes recommendations for jobs and signs off on most hires. Preference is often given to people who are loyal to Trump, and officials at some agencies, like the State Department, have made a concerted effort to keep out people who were supportive of other candidates.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, and deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn are also said to be playing a major role in hiring across the administration.

White House aides’ involvement has frustrated some Cabinet secretaries who want to pick their own staff. Defense Secretary James Mattis has clashed with Trump’s team over hiring. After a behind-the-scenes fight, DHS Secretary John Kelly prevailed in tapping his choice for deputy, Elaine Duke.

But others likely don’t have enough sway with Trump’s team to install their preferred deputies.

Tension between a secretary and a deputy can echo through an agency, leading to low morale, conflicting directives and backbiting.

During the Obama administration, some agencies suffered as a result of disagreements between top officials. For example, Steven Chu, Obama’s first-term energy secretary, often clashed with his deputy, Daniel Poneman, who was handpicked by Obama’s team.

Sources familiar with the process said Trump’s team has already lined up prospective deputies at several agencies, and they’re waiting until after Cabinet secretaries are confirmed to consult with them.

For example, a person close to the transition said Trump’s team has narrowed the EPA deputy secretary job to two candidates: Don van der Vaart, a North Carolina environmental regulator, and Andrew Wheeler, a lawyer at the firm Faegre Baker Daniels and a former Republican staff director on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who has advised Trump aides on energy issues. But the person cautioned that the decision-making process is in flux.

While career employees and acting leadership at the agencies have continued all essential government programs and services, other work has slowed dramatically.

As soon as Trump took office, he signed an executive order freezing all pending Obama administration regulations. As a result, policy-related discussions at many federal agencies are largely on pause while Trump gets his team in place, according to interviews with government employees.

"We are just waiting," said one employee at a federal agency, adding that colleagues at the agency are "trying to find work to do."

Another person close to the administration said Trump’s five-year lobbying ban is limiting the number of people who want to serve, causing Trump aides to look outside Washington for relatively unknown and inexperienced candidates.

“I had a person at the transition tell me that out of 300 positions and résumés she was looking at, she recognized like two names. A lot of them are think-tankers, lawyers or randoms just for that sector,” the person said. “They don’t have the usual suspects looking for work.”

Connor O’Brien and Marianne Levine contributed to this report.