Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, Google goes full Honey Badger and the auto world's mega merger crashes into a political wall.

But first, all the president's missing men. So President Trump came into office promising to bring, quote, the best people

into his administration, but what we've gotten instead is largely an empty administration, not one

full of the best people or the worst people, but of not very many people. That's the finding

an Axios look this morning at the Trump cabinet, which shows that no president in recent history

has started his

tenure with as many extended cabinet vacancies as Trump, and it's not even close.

Trump cabinet positions have been empty for a whopping 1,397 days so far.

At the same time in his first term, Obama's number was just 288 days, and George W. Bush, just 34 days.

In fact, since Reagan, the next closest to Trump's 1397 was Bill Clinton, but he was only

32 days, meaning Trump's total is four times longer. Why it matters is that we're not talking

here about 10th-level bureaucrats. The people we're

talking about are supposed to be the ones, the vetted ones, overseeing everything from our military,

to our environment, to our relations with the rest of the world. The folks who are there right now

are stretched thin, very thin, and that's in the absence of any major crisis. If things turn bad

in any arena, then the lack of bodies could begin to bite.

In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Axios executive editor Mike Allen.

But first, this.

Axios chief technology correspondent, Enah Freed, shares breaking news and analysis

on the most consequential companies and players in tech from the Valley to D.C.

Subscribe to get smarter faster at signup.axios.com. And now back to the pro rata podcast.

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