President Trump has created an ‘acting’ government

IT IS getting to the point at which seemingly every high Trump administration official is an “acting” something or other. Mark Morgan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recently moved over to become the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Before that, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan resigned and Army Secretary Mark T. Esper replaced him as acting Pentagon chief, who knows for how long. The Defense Department has lacked a Senate-confirmed leader since the beginning of the year.

President Trump has tapped former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli to be acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services. In that role, Mr. Cuccinelli reports to Kevin McAleenan, who is the acting homeland security secretary. Mick Mulvaney is acting White House chief of staff. The nation’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, the ambassador to the United Nations and the Food and Drug Administration commissioner are all acting.

In some of these cases, circumstances are extenuating. Mr. Shanahan withdrew from Senate consideration to fill his job permanently because his FBI background check dragged on and his family’s sad history of domestic strife was coming to light. Nor is Mr. Trump unique in relying on acting officials in senior positions, sometimes for substantial lengths of time.

View the complete July 7 commentary by the Editorial Board of The Washington Post.