Usually the winner of a Presidential election joins with the Federal Presidential transition team – including accepting government dollars. So far, Trump’s team hasn’t signed agreements that would indicate that they are going that route. This is making bureaucrats nervous. There have been articles in the press about this for a couple of weeks now.
Perhaps the Trump transition team will go it alone, without the “help” of federal bureaucrats. Heck, they may even base the team outside of D.C.! Apparently this has never been done before. Is it wise?
POLITICO
The former president is busting presidential transition norms, with implications for government coordination, cybersecurity and transparency.
Former President Donald Trump is weighing a go-it-alone approach to presidential transition planning, which could dramatically slow his takeover of the federal government if he wins in November.
The Trump transition team has yet to sign two agreements with the federal government to receive transition funding and planning assistance and to share information — a break with modern precedent. Instead, transition co-chairs Linda McMahon, who served as small business administrator in the Trump administration, and investor and GOP mega-donor Howard Lutnick are plowing ahead with their own processes for vetting potential political appointees and preparing policy plans.
The decision not to take federal assistance allows them to raise unlimited funds without disclosing their donors, while avoiding oversight from federal bureaucrats, whom Trump and his advisers deeply distrust. But if Trump wins the election and continues to drag his feet on signing the agreement with the White House, it will limit the information he and his team can access to understand current federal operations and challenges.
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A person involved in the Trump transition said that they are exploring a “spectrum” of legal options for working with the current administration, including signing and not signing the GSA agreements, and the potential implications.
In a statement, Trump transition co-chairs McMahon and Lutnick said conversations with the federal government are ongoing, and they continue to plan to staff the next administration and devise policy initiatives.
“The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act,” they said. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false and intentionally misleading.”
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There are a number of reasons the Trump transition team may not want to accept GSA’s help or funding. Resources like free office space, provided to the campaigns under the GSA agreement, are less valuable when people are used to working remotely. And by not accepting funding from the federal government, the team may collect unlimited contributions from private donors, without disclosing their identities. That money can be spent on salaries for transition staff, who in years past have often served on a volunteer basis.
By not signing the agreement with the White House, which provides access to the agencies, the Trump transition can also avoid submitting an ethics pledge, whose requirements are outlined by the Presidential Transition Act.
McMahon and Lutnick noted in their statement that their staff have already signed “a robust ethics pledge” that they drafted per Presidential Transition Act stipulations. Among the requirements outlined by the the Trump-Vance Transition ethics code, which was first reported by the New York Times, is that anyone who has engaged in “regulated lobbying activities with respect to such matter, as defined by the Lobbying Disclosure Act, within the previous twelve months” is disqualified from participating in the transition.
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