I was once more hard on Trump for his picks, but realized two important points. In the first place, he had literally thousands of positions to fill. He can only "vet" very, very few of them. that's why Political parties developed - as deep farm teams for the big league system of patronage and graft.
And also, as part of this - Trump had no choice. For most key positions - he needed to worry about Senate confirmation. Like the KGB in the Soviet Union, the whole deep state and McConnell would NEVER allow anyone from outside the deep state in an important post.
Trump was successful in that he proved to all Americans the deep state exists, and runs Fed.gov. No one doubts that now. He also proved the hypocrisy and corruption of the media. We can thank him for that too.
Trump was up against the Deep State. Anyone who thinks Trump could have walked into the job as president and hired whoever he wanted, is sadly mistaken. As you wrote, the president’s appointments have to go through the senate, and we all know how compromised many Republicans are in there. Let’s not forgot the swamp isn’t only on the left.
Like you wrote, Trump succeeded in exposing the swamp. He brought them out into the open. For that, I am very grateful.