White House staffing woes no worse than previous presidents

Disregard the hype about a crisis in the Trump camp over appointments,writes State Department veteran Peter Van Buren. All other administrations have begun like this

You’ve seen the stories — US president-elect Donald Trump was shocked to learn he needs to hire over 4,000 political appointees by January 20, and that people in Washington may refuse to work in a Trump administration, or that Trump, as a newcomer to politics, may not know enough people to get down to business.

Many of the same news sources which said Trump would never win are now exaggerating the few hours’ delay of a transition memo, or the switch from New Jersey governor Chris Christie to vice president-elect Mike Pence to lead the transition team, as signaling a process in disarray.