Trump's mid-level hiring skews heavily white and male - Reuters TV

Many of those who worked under the past administration were asked to leave, others chose to do so. You are probably correct when you say he isn't "hands on" at that level of appointments......but he does set the tone for those doing the hiring. Heck, he has left many high level positions unfilled, let alone mid-level slots.

Simply a news share, LTC (Join to see), not a blame game. If anything, the appointment of Ben Carson shows that Trump appoints those whom he knows.

Actually, Maj John Bell, Cabinet officers are nominated by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a majority vote. Each official receives the title Secretary, except the Attorney General who leads the Department of Justice. Cabinet members serve at the pleasure of the President and may be dismissed at any time.

Capt Dwayne Conyers - If you are looking for accuracy, there are only 14 agency heads that bear the title "Secretary.", (Head of Dept) There are also Deputy Secretaries (Second to the Secretary, next in the line of Succession in the absence of the Secretary), Assistant Secretaries or Directors (Usually the head of Agencies or Bureaus i.e. EPA, CIA, FBI) or Under-Secretary (Typically Career officials within the appropriate Dept., but in some cases political employees, usually the head of a specific sub-division within the Department, i.e. DOS office of Latin American Affairs, Inspector General, Defense Intelligence Agency, Ambassador, or Trade Representative). The article YOU linked is referring to roughly 1000 MID-LEVEL none of which would bear the title of Secretary in any form, despite being SES level officials.

I stand by my scientific wild ass guess that President Trump probably puts in his two cents with the top handful political appointees in any given department (roughly 50-60 total) in each Federal Executive Branch and allows those people to pick their own leadership team within the Departments they head. I base this on my conversation with political appointed ambassadors while I served as the operations officer for Company "F" inspecting the security of sub-Saharan Embassies and Consulates in Africa. Although, I freely admit that anecdotal evidence is not the same as fact. What you are suggesting is the equivalent of a Regimental or Brigade Commander hand selecting the privates in his command.

When I served on Embassy duty and had contact with the US Ambassadors to 33 African Nations in my AOR, only 1 claimed any significant political connection to President George H.W. Bush (41). The remainder of the Ambassadors were selected for nomination based on:
#1) their relationship with the top 2 or 3 political appointees in the Dept. of State,
#2) their status as powerful movers and shakers with the party of the President and suggestion by the party leadership
#3) Their long standing service as career Foreign Service Officers within the African Bureau, and acceptable interviews with the top 2 or 3 political appointees within Dept. of State, and or their designees.

You and I both served at the pleasure of the President as commissioned officers and could be dismissed at any time. That doesn't mean the President had the slightest idea who we were. I my case if they had, I've have been told to have my letter of resignation on the CO's desk at 12:00:01 on January 20, 1993, :)

Thanks Maj John Bell for the good points and providing greater elaboration which the article writer overlooked. One note, I served both as a commissioned officer and as a contractor working for the White House under three administrations. In the second, I was in the room with each POTUS, so they knew who I was. Well, to be more accurate, they knew the bald-headed guy who was running around working on things.

There was this restaurant called “Tags” near HQ NSA. The waitresses were all flirty and saucy. Believe they were the owners’ daughters. They would sit and flirt with my buddy and I, which made us eat there every night of our two-week reserve duty.