Every new president wants to hit the ground running with a set policy agenda and a team of top officials to help push it through Congress and the federal bureaucracy. President-elect Donald Trump’s prior experience taught him one of the greatest frustrations of the job is not having the right people in the right places at the right times to push his agenda.

The policy frustrations borne of personnel turnover and disputes taught Trump to pay closer attention to top appointments from the beginning. Dedicated administration loyalists are an essential ingredient in any president’s plans. Last time, Trump seemed to learn these lessons too late to salvage significant planks of his policy agenda.

Lacking confidence in some of his Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretaries, Trump attempted to exploit the Federal Vacancies Reform Act by installing acting departmental secretaries with questionable legal authority. Another option he considered in April 2020 was to unilaterally adjourn the Congress in order to make recess authority appointments to various vacant positions. That power can only be exercised if the two houses cannot agree on a mutual adjournment date. However, at the time Trump floated his idea for a unilateral adjournment,........

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