Cabinet so white, it’s blinding!
PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump’s cabinet is shaded white.
Eighteen of the 23 cabinetlevel selections President Trump has made are white men, making it one of the least diverse cabinets in recent history.
“This cabinet does not reflect the diversity of America,” said National Urban League President Marc Morial.
Trump’s final pick, announced Thursday morning, was former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to be secretary of agriculture.
The cabinet choices include no Hispanics and only one African-American.
“This is the first time since (Ronald) Reagan that we don’t have a Latino in the cabinet,” said Hector Sanchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.
In addition to the lack of diversity, he said the cabinet is “filled with extremists and people that have no understanding on policy priorities that are good for the nation.
“It’s a step back from where we are heading as a nation. This is extremely worrisome,” Sanchez said.
The cabinet also stands to be the richest, containing multimillionaires and billionaires. Among the wealthiest are Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil, and Treasury Secretary designate Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive. Trump’s picks to head the Commerce and Education Departments, Wilbur Ross and Betsy DeVos, are billionaires.
Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer defended the cabinet choices and rejected arguments that it lacked diversity on Thursday.
“I think if we look at the totality of his administration, the people that he’s talked to, the people that he’s met with, the people that he’s appointed, you see a President who is committed to uniting this country and bringing the best and the brightest together,” Spicer said.
“It’s not just about color,” Spicer said.
The President-elect praised his picks Thursday, saying they have “by far the highest IQ of any cabinet ever assembled.” skin YOU’RE FIRED!
Donald Trump has promised to make America work again — but the minute he takes office, he’s booting some key federal employees, and has not yet introduced a plan to replace many of them.
Experts say the number of highlevel vacancies is both unprecedented and potentially dangerous, since a number of security posts will likely remain unfilled for weeks.
Among the personnel who will be jobless at 12:01 p.m. Friday are the head of the Washington, D.C., National Guard, who leads security efforts for the inauguration, all U.S. ambassadors, and even a handful of figures in charge of manning the codes for a potential nuclear strike.
Trump has announced all of his cabinet picks, as well as his choices for several senior White House and National Security Council jobs. But those amount to only 30 posts that require Senate confirmation — leaving more than 660 posts that require such confirmation unfilled.
The stark number of vacancies, especially among the nation’s security and diplomatic apparatuses, has raised concerns about the nascent Trump administration’s readiness to respond to terror attacks or other catastrophes.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters the country will be in safe hands, and that at least 50 senior Obama White House officials are staying on for the sake of “continuity in government.”
“What we’ve ensured is that, for the time being, we’ve got a team in place that will continue to advise him and make sure that the country remains safe and that our priorities will be carried out,” he said. But historian Michael Purdy was skeptical,
“I think this is, as we have heard the word said throughout this campaign, unprecedented,” Purdy, who runs Presidentialhistory.com, told the Daily News.
“This is always a very delicate handoff of the baton, and I think that other countries tend to look at this time as a time to provoke the U.S.,” Purdy said, referring to “likely candidates” such as Russia and North Korea.
“We certainly hope that does not occur, but that is the real threat,” Purdy said, pointing specifically to Trump’s reported directive to order ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day — a huge break with precedent.
Historically, new administrations have granted high-profile ambassadors extensions to remain in their jobs until replacements are confirmed.
“He’s asked all the ambassadors to go — essentially we’ll be without ambassadors for a period of time,” Purdy said, referring to a New York Times report earlier this month that cited a Dec. 23 cable issuing the mandate “without exceptions.” Trump has named ambassadors