Trump playing catch-up to fill top government posts

Through Wednesday, Trump's team has nominated 35 people to fill 693 high-level positions that require Senate confirmation, according to data maintained by the Partnership for Public Service.

The delays have forced Trump's administration to be reliant upon a number of holdovers who played prominent roles in the Obama administration, leading to suspicions of the federal bureaucracy.

In the most prominent example, Trump fired acting attorney general Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.

Democrats contend the administration has failed to fully vet the nominees, many of whom are wealthy and have extensive business ties, and have been lackadaisical in providing financial records and ethics filings.

Democrats boycotted a Senate Finance Committee meeting last week called to vote on Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Mnuchin, who has clashed with Democrats over the foreclosures of thousands of homeowners when he headed OneWest bank.

Trump won an early confirmation of Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security and has nominated Elaine Duke, who served in the department during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, to serve as deputy secretary.

The president has yet to select heads of the Transportation Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to natural disasters.