From USA today: WASHINGTON - Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announced its official “transition team” on Friday, a sign of confidence the Republican expects to prevail in the November election but also a requirement of the law.
Could someone point me to the statute? If it’s a law, what defines a transition team and to whom do they have to register their transition team. Does that mean Trump can’t be President if he breaks the law (again) by not having a transition team?
The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 88–277) established the mechanisms to facilitate an orderly and peaceful transition of power,[1][2] and has been amended numerous times: by the Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act of 1998 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 100–398), the Presidential Transition Act of 2000 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 106–293 (text) (PDF)), the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 111–283 (text) (PDF)), the Presidential Transitions Improvements Act of 2015 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 114–136 (text) (PDF)), the Presidential Transition Act of 2019, and the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.
The Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 requires the General Services Administration to provide potential presidential transition teams with office space, facilities, funding for transition staff, and access to government services.[6][12][13] For example, spending on Mitt Romney’s transition team in 2012 was going to be $8.9 million, all funds appropriated by the federal government.[13]
The Presidential Transition Act of 2019 requires the incumbent president to establish “transition councils” by June of an election year to facilitate a possible handover of power.[14][15][16]
An interesting article from 2018 on the rocky transition process for Trump in 2016-2017, with details on Max Stier, the expert on transitions:
And in 2020, the General Services Administration headed by Trump appointee Emily Murphy refused to release funds or office space to Biden’s transition team until three weeks after the election. Congress subsequently removed the power of the GSA administrator to delay access to funds.
Murphy has since landed a job with a company that provides leadership training to businesses. Amongst her skill set for teaching future leaders is hampering the democratic process of transitions and failing to audit the books of an institution under her mandate, the Trump Hotel. She will also be able to give pointers on the fine art of defying congressional subpoenas.
So will Harris have one, if she wins, seeing as she is VP? Its still technically a transition though.
She’s required by law to have one.
To my shame, I didn’t pay attention to the transition after the 2020 election. Did the America-hating fuckstick’s people bother talking to the Biden team?
Maybe it’s just me - but everything I see seems to be about the White House/GSA/Federal agencies having requirements related to the transition, from providing office space to the transition teams following the last major party convention to each agency appointing someone to oversee the transition. But I don’t see anything that says a candidate (or even a president-elect) is actually required to have a transition team , other than people like Chris Christie simply saying “it’s legally required”. Obviously, the law that requires the GSA to provide office space anticipates that major candidates will have transition teams, but does any law actually mandate it?
You’re right, i overstated it. It’s the President who is required by law to have a transition council.
The public funding is only available for a candidate who establishes a transition process.
I mentioned upthread that they did eventually release the legally-mandated funding and office space to Biden’s transition team. But I’m certain there was little to no communication between Trump cabinet officials and incoming Biden personnel to help smooth the transition.
Contrast this with the GHW Bush to Clinton transition, where despite having lost a tough campaign Bush went out of his way to make sure his Administration coordinated with the Clinton team to promote a smooth transition.
The Clinton team removing the “W” key from their keyboards on leaving office now seems so light-hearted and innocent.
It will take me some digging but folks have posted an article about how when Trump fired Christie, they threw out most of the transition plan. How this played out was that federal agencies were left without appointed people, and the permafeds left behind weren’t making decisions. I feel like it was an article series. The one I remember most was about DOE because I got to witness some of that up close.
I remember that article, but I could only find the Guardian article that I linked upthread. The lack of attention paid to Energy was a bit scarier than the example of the Department of Agriculture in the Guardian article…
May your Google-fu be better than mine!
It’s amazing how different it can be when the outgoing president actually cares about the office and the United States.
If Trump wins again he has lots of Project 2025 goons ready to slide right into place.
Eventually compiled into Michael Lewis’ “The Fifth Risk”
That’s what I was thinking of - Thanks!
Another article about Trump’s transition team.
“Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. will be honorary chairs along with the vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance. The team’s other members are Linda McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive and the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s presidency; and Howard Lutnik, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm.”
So no one who will know what they’re doing.