How Donald Trump’s transition will unfold

WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump Trump’s impending return to the White House means he will want to create an entirely new administration, different from the one that served under the president. Joe Biden. His team also promises that the second option will not be much like the first option that Trump established after his 2016 victory.

The president-elect now has a 75-day term. transition period one of the top items on the to-do list: filling some 4,000 government jobs with political appointees, people the Trump team specifically hired to fill their jobs.

This includes everyone from the Secretary of State and other heads of Cabinet departments to those chosen to serve part-time on boards and commissions. About 1,200 of these presidential appointments require Senate confirmation, which should be easier given The Senate now comes under Republican control..

Here’s what to expect:

What will the transition look like?

Although there will be a complete turnover in the new administration, Trump will be familiar with what he needs to achieve. He created a completely new administration for his first term and has certain ideas about what should be done differently this time.

He has already named several names.

Trump said at his victory party early Wednesday morning that the former presidential candidate and anti-vaccination activist Robert Kennedy Jr. will be brought in to “help make America healthy again,” adding that “we’re going to let him go for it.” On the eve of the election, Trump did not reject Kennedy’s calls final fluoridated water. Trump also promised to make South Africans Elon Muska vocal Trump campaign supporter, federal “spending cut” secretary and Tesla CEO, has suggested he could find trillions of dollars in government spending to eliminate.

The transition is not just about filling jobs. Most president-elect also receive daily or near-daily intelligence briefings during the transition period.

In 2008, outgoing President George W. Bush personally briefed President-elect Barack Obama on US covert operations. As Trump prepared to take office in 2016, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, briefed Michael Flynn, her designated successor in the new administration. However, in 2020, Trump’s legal challenges to the election results delayed the start of the transition process by several weeks, and presidential briefings with Biden did not begin until November 30.

Who is helping Trump in this process?

Trump’s transition is being led primarily by friends and family, including Kennedy Jr. and the former Democratic presidential candidate. Tulsi Gabbardand the president-elect’s adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his vice presidential running mate J.D. Vance. The transition is co-chaired by Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive who previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

Lutnick said this year’s operation is “somewhat different from the 2016 operation, which he first led Chris Christie. After winning eight years ago, Trump fired Christie, scrapped the former New Jersey governor’s plans and placed his then-vice president-elect in charge of the transition. Mike Pence.

Early in his first term, Trump assembled an initial cabinet that included several other mainstream Republicans and business leaders who ended up disappointing him or publicly breaking with him, or both. This time, Trump has pledged to value loyalty as much as possible, a philosophy that can ensure he makes choices more consistent with his ideological beliefs and bombastic professional style.

Unlike the Democratic Vice President’s campaign Kamala HarrisThe Trump team did not sign any campaign signatures. transitional agreements with the General Services Administration, which essentially acts as the federal government’s landlord. As such, he has already missed deadlines to reach agreements with GSA on logistics such as office space and technical support, and with the White House on access to agencies including documents, staff and facilities.

New transition rules

In 2020, Trump claimed widespread voter fraud – which didn’t actually happen — cost him the election, delaying the start of the transition from his outgoing administration to the incoming Biden administration by several weeks.

Four years ago, the Trump-appointed head of the GSA, Emily Murphydetermined that it did not have the legal authority to determine the winner of the presidential race because Trump was still challenging the results in court. This delayed funding and cooperation during the transition period.

This continued until Trump tried to undermine the election results. crashed in key states that Murphy has officially agreed” determine the elected president and begin the transition process. Trump eventually posted on social media that his administration would cooperate.

To prevent similar delays in future transitions, the Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 requires the transition process to begin five days after the election—even if the winner is still in doubt. This is intended to avoid lengthy delays and means that “a positive GSA determination is no longer a prerequisite for receiving transition support services,” according to the agency’s guidelines for the new rules.

Uncertainty increased further after the 2000 election, when the Supreme Court case was five weeks away. settled the disputed election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. That leaves Bush with about half the usual amount of time to orchestrate the government transition from the outgoing Clinton administration. This ultimately led to questions about national security gaps that may have contributed to the United States’ lack of preparation for the Sept. 11 attacks the following year.

Originally published: November 6, 2024 10:47 am EST