Puzder was one of the first, but not the last, of Trump’s nominees to fall. The pattern has been repeated again and again as more than five dozen of Trump’s picks for various jobs either withdrew or saw their nominations pulled before they were put through the confirmation process in the Senate.

“We’re way over two years into this administration, and there are very large blocks of the government where you simply don’t have confirmed leadership,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that has been tracking the nominations process.

Sixty-three of Trump’s nominees have taken themselves out of consideration or saw their nominations pulled – nearly twice the casualty rate under President Barack Obama, who had withdrawn 32 nominations at the same point in his presidency, according to data collected by Stier’s group.