The Washington Post in partnership with a nonprofit bipartisan organization called, Partnership for Public Service, offer a weekly tracking of President Trump appointees to positions that require Senate Confirmation.
As of June 8th, 2018 there are one-hundred-ninety-seven positions without a nominee, four awaiting nomination, one-hundred-thirty-four formally nominated, and there have been three-hundred-thirty-one confirmed.
The State Department remains the department with the most positions to fill, for the different Ambassador roles, thirty-seven positions have no nominee, while twenty are waiting for senate confirmation.
Once such nominee is Leandro Rizzuto Jr., nominated to the post of Ambassador to Barbados, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Saint Lucia. He was nominated January 4th, referred to the Foreign Relations committee on January 8th, 2018.
In early February CNN’s the K-File reported that one Republican Senator, Ben Sasse of Nebraska was pushing back against the nomination based on Rizzuto Jr’s passed pushing of conspiracy theories, and unfounded political attacks against then candidate Trump’s opponents.
Examples of tweets he re-tweeted
WE ALL KNOW @tedcruz IS A CHEATER,
LIAR & WOMANIZER…
HEIDI, TED'S WIFE, HIS PARTNER IN CRIME
VOTE @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/m2K96ZjDWd— MDHoskins #CO (@Margee11) April 8, 2016
CRUZ & KASICH TRAITORS?
TO THE PEOPLE?
FUNDED BY SOROS
WHO ALSO FUNDS
BLACK LIVES MATTER & HILLARY
& MOVEON ORG pic.twitter.com/EyL6husXRS— RedWaveRising? (@DebAlwaystrump) March 16, 2016
Senator Sasse through his spokesman, James Wegmann said, “People who want to serve Americans as our diplomats and spokespeople abroad should know that words and truth matter, even during campaigns. Cynics and nuts are probably going to have a hard time securing Senate confirmation.”
Later in February The Washington Post reported that two weeks after he was nominated, Rizzuto and his wife Debbie pledged thousands of dollars to fund a gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
The event called Trumpettes USA gala, is a gala that is not a charity event, instead according to the Washington Post, most of the money they bring in goes to pay Trump’s club.
The founder of the event, Toni Holt Kramer explained that the Rizzuto’s had pledged to support the 2019 gala at the “presidential” level, the most expensive kind of sponsorship.
While Kramer declined to say how much was pledged without the couples permission, she did say “presidential” level support would be “upwards of probably $15,000 or $20,000 or $25,000.”
Rizzuto Jr. is a former top executive of Conair, the beauty-product and home appliance business which was founded by his father, in light of his nomination he had to step down from day-to-day management of the company.
