By Lisa Rein, Isaac Arnsdorf · The Washington Post (c) 2024
The Trump transition team said Tuesday it had reached an agreement with the Biden White House to start coordinating the handoff of federal agencies to the new administration.
But the Trump team is still refusing to accept several typical trappings of the presidential transition process,including federal funding, equipment and office space – as well as official government background and security checks for his transition staff. The agreement does not include an ethics pledge for the president-elect, required by the Presidential Transition Act, stating that Trump will avoid conflicts of interest while in office.
An ethics plan covering the transition staff was signed by the Trump team and posted on the website of the General Services Administration, which coordinates the handover of hundreds of agencies.
The agreement clears the way for Trump-appointed “landing teams” to start entering government offices to receive briefings from career staff about the operations of hundreds of federal agencies, a ritual of presidential transitions. By turning down about $7 million in federal funding for the transition, Trump will be able to raise unlimited privatedonations for his transition.
The long delay in signing the transition deal – which was signed by Vice President Kamala Harris before the election in September – does not mean that Trump’s transition will now conform to those of his predecessors. The president-elect refused to abide by key requirements aimed at transparency and security.
The limited agreement also reflects a deep distrust the president-elect holds toward the federal governmentfor stymieing his first-term agenda or in some cases bolstering legal cases against him. Trump and his political alliespledged during the campaign to radically downsize and restructure the federal workforce of 2.2 million.
Trump’s transition team has not signed a memorandum of understanding with the Justice Department, for instance, that would allow the agency to conduct background checks and intensive reviews for the security clearances that many of Trump’s landing teams need for the Biden administration to legally share classified intelligence and national defense briefings. The briefings will only be given to Trump transition officials who have a proper security clearance and have signed a nondisclosure agreement, according to the White House.
Some ethics guardrails were put in place with the White House. Transition officials are prohibited, for instance, from using information they learn in their new roles for their personal benefit.
But the plan does not include language about the president-elect’s own ethical conduct during the transition, a new provision of the Presidential Transition Act added by Congress after ethical issues dogged the first Trump administration.
“That language represents an early step in showing how a president-elect would avoid conflicts of interest once he is in office,” said Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Center for Presidential Transition, a resource for presidential candidates within the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. She said that after months of talks between the Trump transition and Biden White House to reach some deal that would allow Trump officials to enter federal agencies, “It may be the nature of the negotiation that a compromise needed to be made.”
Saloni Sharma, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement after the agreement was announced that the Biden administration was determined to facilitate a smooth transition of power to Trump.
“A smooth transition is critical to the safety and security of the American people who are counting on their leaders to be responsible and prepared,” Sharma said. “That is why since September, the White House and the GSA have repeatedly made the case to the Trump transition team to sign both the GSA and White House Memoranda of Understanding as both parties have done during previous transitions.”
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on why the president-elect did not sign an ethics agreement addressing any of his own potential conflicts of interest.
The team said it chose to forgo federal funding in part to save taxpayer money, “which is consistent with President Trump’s commitment to save taxpayers’ hard-earned money.” Accepting the money would have put a $5,000 cap on individual donations to the transition and require public disclosure of donors. The Trump team said it would not accept foreign donations and would disclose its donors, without specifying when or how. But it can raise unlimited contributions because it will be funded privately.
In 2016, Trump transition officials agreed to accept the full suite of government funding and office space. At the time, Congress provided $6 million for the transition, plus $1 million to help prepare new appointees.
But this time around, Trump’s team rejected GSA’s offer out oflong-standing skepticism of the outgoing administration and the federal bureaucracy, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which traditionally conducts background checks that are used by the government to weigh security clearances. The Biden White House said it disagreed with that position but wanted to proceed with a smooth transition. The D.C.-based law firm of a Trump campaign lawyer has vetted some of those the president-elect has announced he will nominate for his Cabinet, as The Washington Post reported.
As part of the deal, the Trump team submitted an ethics code similar to one it used before the president-elect’s first term eight years ago.The code disqualifies registered lobbyists from serving on the transition and said officials should recuse themselves from matters they lobbied on in the past year. It also prohibits transition members from lobbying on issues they handled for six months after the transition.
In the meantime, without official background checks or security clearance investigations, the incoming administration’s unorthodox approach has alarmed critics.
“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-Mass.) said in a statement after the agreement was announced. “There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition’s ethics agreement and the letter of the law.”
Warren called Trump’s reliance on private donors to fund the transition “nothing more than a ploy for well-connected Trump insiders to line their pockets while pretending to save taxpayers money.”