Posts tagged with "Donald Trump’s campaign has not yet participated in the government’s official presidential transition process"

October 9, 2024

Less than a month before Election Day, Donald Trump’s campaign has not yet participated in the government’s official presidential transition process—a significant break from past practice that could threaten the seamless transfer of power, should the Republican nominee win election, reports The New York Times.

Trump’s team has missed two key deadlines to sign agreements with the administration that are set by federal law—and also has failed to sign an ethics plan that is required to jump-start the process of planning for a new administration.

Trump’s representatives did attend a meeting at the White House last month, but they otherwise have had little communication with the Biden Administration about the handoff and have skipped the opportunity to receive national security briefings, the Times notes.

The former president’s approach is a clear—although not wholly unexpected—departure from how previous presidential candidates prepared to take control of the vast federal bureaucracy. It appears to be guided, at least in part, by the candidate’s deep suspicion and mistrust of the government he is running to lead.

Experts note that Trump also may have other incentives. His refusal to sign the documents allows him to circumvent fund-raising rules that put limits on private contributions to the transition effort, as well as ethics rules meant to avoid possible conflicts of interest for the incoming administration.

Representatives of Trump’s transition team, formally known as Trump Vance 2025 Transition, said its lawyers were still negotiating with the Biden Administration over terms of the agreements.

Lawyers for both parties “continue to constructively engage” in talks, Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the Trump transition co-chairs, said in a statement to The New York Times. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false and intentionally misleading.”

The transition team for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has signed all three documents, according to White House officials.

The formal transition process, which is dictated by the Presidential Transition Act, has traditionally been viewed as nonpartisan. Candidates typically begin setting up teams as early as six months before Election Day in order to begin the time-consuming work of vetting and hiring thousands of political appointees and creating policy agendas, while coordinating directly with the current administration to ensure that agencies run smoothly during the turnover.

By delaying that process, Trump’s team has cut itself off from some government services and, potentially, millions of dollars in funding. It has also, at least for now, prevented aides from getting security clearances required before they can review federal records.

“An effective transition leads to an effective administration. It leads to better staffing, better organization and leads to the country being safer and more secure,” said Heath Brown, a Public Policy professor at John Jay College who wrote a book on the Biden administration’s transition. “I think the Trump transition team is unsure of how much they want to play by the rules.”

 Research contact: @nytimes