“THE President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, appoint the heads of the executive departments, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, or officers of the armed forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain, and other officers whose appointments are vested in him in this Constitution,” states Article VII, Section 16 of the Constitution.

With the presidential power to appoint comes the power to dismiss. The oft-repeated maxim is that Cabinet secretaries serve “at the pleasure of the President.” William Safire wrote about it recently in the New York Times magazine – the “pleasure principle” descends from the “supreme royal executive power” of English and French monarchs, who had the prerogative to dismiss commoners in their service at any time.

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