President-elect Donald Trump is planning on at least matching, and maybe exceeding, outgoing President Obama’s number of cabinet officers confirmed on his first day in office.
On Obama’s first day in 2007, seven cabinet secretaries were confirmed by the Senate. Trump transition team officials say they expect that number to be at least matched come Trump’s inauguration on Friday.
As the team opens this final week of transition, seven cabinet-level officials are scheduled to testify before members of the United States Senate. This includes the nominees for the Departments of the Interior, Education, and Energy.
The Trump transition team is at this point over 500 people, and they have been working around the clock to prepare the President-elect’s designees, Breitbart reports. Each nominee has had to endure over 100 hours of preparation, and the team held over 40 practice hearing, with each nominee fielding an average of 123 questions per session.
In total, almost a dozen cabinet officials could reasonably be confirmed by Trump’s swearing in on Friday afternoon or the days immediately following.
