尽管唐纳德·特朗普总统拒绝承认他在选举中失败，但他在一个方面像他的前任一样处理跛脚鸭时期:在他离开白宫的路上，向关键盟友、捐助者和朋友授予优厚的任命。
自选举以来，白宫已经宣布了100多项任命和提名，其中一些是关键的行政职位，但也有一些是各种咨询委员会和委员会的职位，这也是布什和奥巴马白宫的做法。
尽管与学校或军队没有明显联系，但他还是任命前白宫顾问凯莉安·康威(Kellyanne Conway)为空军学院访客委员会成员，此外，政府官员海蒂·斯特鲁普(Heidi Stirrup)最近被司法部禁止进入司法部，因为她声称向官员施压，要求提供与选举欺诈有关的信息。
特朗普周一任命前众议院议长纽特·金里奇(Newt Gingrich)为五角大楼国防政策委员会成员，并任命他的女儿杰基·金里奇·库斯曼(Jackie Gingrich Cushman)为纪念约翰·亚当斯总统的纪念碑进行规划和筹款。
鲁迪·朱利安尼的儿子安德鲁是白宫助理，他和总统的保镖尼克·卢娜周三被提名为美国大屠杀纪念委员会成员。
白宫还在12月初宣布，与白宫有关系的著名共和党游说者布莱恩·巴拉德(Brian Ballard)和教育部长贝琪·德沃斯的嫂子帕姆·德沃斯(Pam DeVos)将成为肯尼迪中心的董事会成员。
负责政策的代理国防部副部长安东尼·塔塔(Anthony Tata)有发表煽动性、反穆斯林言论的历史，曾提及前总统巴拉克·奥巴马作为“恐怖分子头目”，本周被授予商船学院顾问委员会的职位。
这些职位本身没有薪水，但其中一些选择相当于授权给那些资格可疑的人担任这些职务。任命的选择过程通过由约翰尼·麦克恩特(Johnny McEntee)领导的白宫总统人事办公室(White House Office of White总统府人事处)进行。在因背景调查问题被护送出白宫之前，约翰尼·麦克恩特曾担任总统的私人助理。
跛脚鸭任命的做法绝不是新的或不寻常的。总统最近的两位前任，巴拉克·奥巴马总统和乔治·布什总统，在他们任期的最后几天也做出了类似的任命。
“在许多方面，(这)是宠溺制度的遗迹，在那里，政治领导人能够分发这些李子，不是因为有人从他们为国家服务或拥有特定专业知识的角度来看值得，而是因为政治上与总统的密切关系，”旨在提高政府效力的无党派公共服务伙伴关系主席马克斯·施蒂尔说。
白宫拒绝对政府任期最后几天的任命和提名增加置评。
但一位熟悉这一过程的人士表示，约会清单“实际上是一份清单，列出了所有这些声称因错误原因被排除在外的人，他们现在刚刚被给予这些东西，知道这不再重要的压力就更小了。”
像特朗普一样，奥巴马在任期的最后几个月里任命了各种董事会和委员会的政治盟友和捐助者。
2016年11月，奥巴马总统任命著名的民主党捐助者弗雷德·埃沙纳为肯尼迪中心董事会成员。
2017年1月5日，他任命副总统乔·拜登的儿子亨特的商业伙伴埃里克·施韦林(Eric Schwerin)为美国海外遗产保护委员会成员。
利昂·帕内塔(Leon Panetta)曾是克林顿总统的幕僚长，也是奥巴马总统手下的中情局局长和国防部长，他表示，特朗普的任命与历届总统的“最大区别”是，“特朗普任命的许多人不一定反映出有助于他们新工作的背景。”
上周，特朗普任命特朗普国家安全委员会(Trump National Security Council)前发言人迈克尔·安东(Michael Anton)为国家教育科学委员会(National Board for Education Sciences)的董事会成员，该委员会为教育部研究部门的领导提供建议，此外还有退休历史学家、《关于美国历史的48个自由主义谎言》(The Liberal Lies on American History)(你可能在学校学过)一书的作者拉里·施韦卡特(Larry Schweikart)。
帕内塔特别提到了特朗普的心腹和竞选活动人员大卫·博西(David Bossie)和科里·莱万多夫斯基(Cory Lewandowski)，他们是在12月初被任命为五角大楼国防商业委员会(Pentagon 's Defense Business Board)成员的，此前白宫取消了该委员会的成员。根据该委员会的网站，该委员会成立于2002年，目的是为五角大楼高级官员提供“关于商业管理问题的独立建议”。
帕内塔补充说:“这只是表明，任命的目的不是为了加强我们的国防建设和国家安全，而是为了在内部安插在政治上支持特朗普总统的人。”
虽然两人都被任命为四年任期，但一名美国国防官员补充说，“成员们为本届政府服务”，这增加了当选总统乔·拜登将他们赶下台的真正可能性。
马特·施拉普是美国保守派联盟的主席，也是梅赛德斯·施拉普的长期助手的丈夫，他被提名为国会图书馆信托基金委员会的成员。
第一夫人梅兰妮·特朗普的顾问玛西娅·李·凯利被授予白宫保护委员会的职位。
贾里德·库什纳的老朋友亚当·博勒被选为美国大屠杀纪念委员会的成员。
然而，特朗普案件的另一个关键区别是，他参与了跛脚鸭总统的常见做法，这显然与他同时进行的推翻选举失败的运动相矛盾，尽管他同时输掉了选举团和普选。
“在一届政府任期结束时，人们会有一种感觉，那就是试图通过迅速分发所有可用的李子来创造任何价值，你知道，如果你认为你会在身边，你就不需要同样的紧迫感，”施蒂尔观察到。
Trump rushes to dole out plum appointments to allies on way out the door
While President Donald Trump has refused to acknowledge that he lost the election, he’s handling the lame-duck period as his predecessors did in one respect: awarding plum appointments to key allies, donors and friends on his way out of the White House.
Since the election, the White House has announced more than 100 appointments and nominations - some to key administration posts, but also to various advisory boards and commissions, in a practice also done by the Bush and Obama White Houses.
He’s named former White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway to the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors despite having no obvious connection to the school or the military, along with Heidi Stirrup, an administration official recently barred from the Justice Department over claims she pressured officials for information related to election fraud.
Trump appointed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday to the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, and named his daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, to a commission planning and fundraising for a memorial to honor President John Adams.
Rudy Giuliani’s son Andrew, who works as a White House aide, and the president’s bodyman Nick Luna were named Wednesday to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
The White House also announced in early December that Brian Ballard, a prominent GOP lobbyist with ties to the White House, and Pam DeVos, a sister-in-law of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, will sit on the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees.
Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Anthony Tata, who has a history of making inflammatory, anti-Muslim remarks and once referred to former PresidentBarack Obamaas a “terrorist leader,” was awarded this week with an advisory board position at the Merchant Marine Academy.
The positions themselves are not salaried but some of the choices amount to empowering individuals with questionable qualifications for the appointments. The process of selecting the appointments flows through the White House Office of White House Presidential Personnel Office, headed up by Johnny McEntee, who previously served as the president's personal assistant before being escorted off the White House grounds amid issues with his background clearance.
The practice of lame-duck appointments is by no means new or unusual. The president’s two most recent predecessors, Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, made a similar flurry of appointments in the final days of their lame-duck administrations.
“In many ways, [it] is a vestige of the spoil system, where you have political leaders that are able to hand out these plums, not because somebody has deserved it from the perspective of, they're serving their country or having a particular expertise, but because of the political closeness to the president,” said Max Stier, the president of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service that aims to improve government effectiveness.
The White House declined to comment on the uptick in appointments and nominations in the final days of the administration.
But a person familiar with the process characterized the list of appointments as being "literally a laundry list of all these people who claimed to have been shut out of things for the wrong reasons who are now just being given these things, and there’s even less pressure knowing it doesn’t matter anymore."
Like Trump, Obama appointed political allies and donors to various boards and commissions in his final months in office.
In November 2016, President Obama named Fred Eychaner, a prominent Democratic donor, to the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center.
On Jan. 5, 2017, he appointed Eric Schwerin, a business partner of Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
Leon Panetta, who served as chief of staff to President Clinton and as CIA director and defense secretary under President Obama, said the “biggest difference” between Trump’s appointments and those of past presidents “is that a lot of these people that Trump is appointing don't necessarily reflect the kind of background that will help them in their new job.”
Last week, Trump named Michael Anton, a former spokesman for the Trump National Security Council, to the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises leaders of the Department of Education’s research division, along with Larry Schweikart, a retired historian and author of “48 Liberal Lies about American History (That You Probably Learned in School).”
Panetta pointed specifically to Trump confidants and campaign operatives David Bossie and Cory Lewandowski, who were appointed in early December to the Pentagon’s Defense Business Board after the White House removed the members serving on the board, which was formed in 2002 to provide senior Pentagon officials with “independent advice on business management issues,” according to its website.
“It just makes clear that the purpose of the appointment was not to enhance our defense establishment and national security, it's to plant people on the inside who are politically supporters of President Trump,” Panetta added.
While both were appointed to four-year terms, a U.S. defense official added that “members serve at the pleasure of the current administration” raising the very real possibility that President-elect Joe Biden will boot them out.
Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union and husband of longtime aide Mercedes Schlapp, has been tapped to sit on the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board.
Marcia Lee Kelly, an adviser to first lady Melania Trump, was awarded a position on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House.
Longtime friend Jared Kushner friend Adam Boehler was tapped as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
Another key difference in Trump’s case, however, is that he’s partaking in what is a common practice of a lame-duck presidents in apparent contradiction to his simultaneous crusade to overturn his election defeat, despite having lost both the Electoral College and popular vote.
“At the end of an administration, there is a sense of trying to generate whatever value there is by handing out all plums that are available, you know, with great dispatch, which if you thought you were going to be around you wouldn't need that same sense of urgency,” Stier observed.
