At the Wednesday afternoon daily White House virus briefing a clearly frustrated President Trump, angry over Democrat stalling over vitally needed administration appointments, threatened to adjourn Congress and put his nominees on the job by recess appointments. He has the power to do it under Article 2, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution.

A recess appointment is a way to get a nominee passed through Congress when Congress is in recess, i.e.- not in session.

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Said the president, “If the House will not agree to that adjournment I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress…The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony, pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis. It is a scam, what they do.”

One example is the Undersecretary for Food Security, an official responsible for ensuring the safety and proper distribution of the U.S. food supply. The president and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue have been waiting two and a half years for Congress to act on the nomination. Even now, when the safety of the food supply is so important because of the virus, Democrats continue to stall on the appointment.

Another case is the appointment of the CEO of the Voice of America. The VOA is supposed to be an arm of U.S. diplomacy, getting our national message out to the people of the world. Instead it has become infested with America-hating broadcasters whom the president has labeled “a disgrace” and “disgusting.” A new CEO could change that narrative and make America’s own VOA actually pro-American. Because they enjoy the current anti-American message of the VOA, the Democrats will not pass the nomination.

Those are two examples out of over one hundred. The only reason the president has been able to get a record number of federal judges into office is because those appointments are only decided by the Senate and the Senate is in friendly Republican hands.