White and male: Trump cabinet’s profile
In mid-level political jobs, 88 per cent were non-Hispanic white and 62 per cent were men
When Donald Trump faced criticism from advocacy groups for not including more women and minorities in his cabinet last January, the incoming administration promised that the lower rungs of the bureaucracy would ultimately look more diverse.
Now, recently available government data on the ethnic and gender make-up of the broader Trump administration shows that with more than 1,000 midlevel political jobs filled by midyear the appointees look much like the top leadership: mostly white and male.
Office of Personnel Management numbers analysed by Reuters show that 88 per cent of such appointees were non-Hispanic white and 62 per cent were men.
By comparison, in the final year of Barack Obama’s Democratic administration, non-Hispanic whites made up 67 per cent of that group and men accounted for 47 per cent — closer to what the US population looks like. Non-Hispanic whites account for 61 per cent and men make up 49 per cent, according to 2016 census data. “This administration so far has not in any direct sense prioritised diversity,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan group that tracks federal hiring, when presented with Reuters’ findings.
Out of the Trump administration’s 24 top cabinet-level positions, 17 are filled by white men.
Asked to comment on the midlevel personnel data, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump had a long history of promoting women and pointed to last week’s nomination of Kirstjen Nielsen to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
“He will continue to elevate and empower women to top posts in his administration,” Walters said. She declined to discuss Trump’s views on the ethnicity of political appointees.
One day before Trump took office on January 20, his thenspokesman Sean Spicer responded to criticism of the cabinet’s line-up by saying that members were picked on their merits and appointments across the broader federal bureaucracy would satisfy demands for more diversity.