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The transition team for president-elect Donald Trump has reached a formal agreement with the Biden White House to begin coordinating a process for incoming officials to be given the reins of government once Trump is sworn in — but the agreement lacks critical safeguards that previous transitions have adhered to.
A full presidential transition won’t happen until noon on January 20, 2025, when Trump is officially inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. But when a new president is set to enter the White House, it is common practice for the outgoing and incoming administrations to create agreements for a smooth transition, allowing the incoming group of bureaucrats to enter federal agencies early on to learn the ins and outs of their roles.
Such an agreement, which had been delayed for longer than usual after Trump’s presidential win earlier this month, was announced on Tuesday. Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, heralded the agreement between the two sides.
“This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power,” Wiles said in a statement.
However, the agreement disregards multiple security safeguards that have been typical of transitions in the past, omitting FBI background checks or security clearance investigations for key Trump administration officials, spurning the use of government office space to carry out the transition, and denying a $7 million public fund set aside for presidential transfers of power.
The Trump transition team claimed they had rejected that money to save taxpayer dollars, vowing that they would disclose their donors later on and that they wouldn’t take funds from foreign officials. However, the transition team did not specify how or when they would make their disclosures.
By denying those funds, Trump can instead raise an unlimited amount from donors to help pay for the transition. Critics have noted that this is highly unethical, as it allows Trump’s team to receive funds from corporations and other wealthy benefactors, potentially in exchange for favors within the administration or for access to Trump himself.
“This announcement fails to answer key questions about national security threats and FBI vetting of nominees, and increases concerns about corruption,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement following the announcement of the agreement. “There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition’s ethics agreement and the letter of the law.”
The collection of private funds is “nothing more than a ploy for well-connected Trump insiders to line their pockets while pretending to save taxpayers money,” Warren added.
Skepticism about Trump disclosing his donors at a later date is warranted, as the transition team has been raising “secret money” for their work since his election win.
“When the money isn’t disclosed, it’s not clear how much everybody is giving, who is giving it and what they are getting in return for their donations,” Heath Brown, public policy professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The Spokane Spokesman-Review. “It’s an area where the vast majority of Americans would agree that they want to know who is paying that bill.”
“In practical terms, anyone — including foreign officials — are now in a position to write generous and unlimited checks to the incoming American president’s transition team, knowing that their names and interests will be shielded from public scrutiny,” MSNBC producer Steve Benen said about the secret money being used to fund the transition.
Trump is not unfamiliar with skirting ethics rules and engaging in shady donation schemes. After his presidential election win in 2016, his inauguration committee likely misused donor funds, including by overpaying for events that Trump himself profited from, such as booking his own hotel in Washington, D.C. for a celebration that he attended.
As a result of that action, the Trump-owned property settled a lawsuit with Washington, D.C., paying $750,000 to the district.
Much of the funding for the inaugural committee was never revealed, with watchdog groups raising concern over possible money laundering, cash-for-access schemes and illegal contributions. Indeed, more than half of the corporations that donated to Trump’s inauguration committee received federal government contracts, with many of their executives also receiving Trump administration appointments.
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