Trump team’s rejection of a transition deal adds a wrinkle to its transparency pledges
The refusal by President-elect Donald Trump’s team to sign a transition agreement with the General Services Administration means that despite the team’s pledges to abide by several transparency customs of presidential handovers, it isn’t legally bound to follow through on its promises.
Presidential transitions abide by a series of laws and norms that enable the outgoing administration to brief incoming officials with nonpublic information and to fund transition operations. Trump’s transition team, after forgoing the $7.2 million in government funds that the GSA would have provided if they had reached an agreement, has promised to be transparent by disclosing the names of its donors and said it would not accept donations from foreigners. In an agreement with the White House, the transition team also released an ethics pledge, but the pledge may not be compliant with transition rules.
Trump’s transition team released a statement this week saying the decision to opt for private funding alone saves taxpayer dollars.
But the Trump team did not indicate when donors’ names would be made public or if the amounts of their donations would also be released. If Trump’s team accepted the help of the GSA, donors would need to be disclosed within 30 days of the inauguration, which is set for Jan. 20. Past presidential transitions have also limited individual donations to $5,000, a cap that Trump’s team has not committed to. The GSA would also have provided secure lines of communication and office space to conduct internal meetings.
After initially missing an Oct. 1 deadline, Trump’s team this week signed an agreement with the White House that will begin formal briefings led by departing administration members. But Trump has continued to refuse to sign an agreement with the Justice Department that would allow the FBI to run security checks for transition staff. Without clearances, Biden administration officials cannot share classified information with many transition team members.
This week, Trump’s team published an ethics plan for its transition staff. Although President Joe Biden’s staff accepted the plan in its agreement with Trump, the plan may run afoul of the Presidential Transition Act, which mandates that such plans detail how a president-elect himself will address his own conflicts of interest. Trump’s plan does not appear to do that.
Representatives for the Trump transition team and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“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,” Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, said in the statement Tuesday about the agreement with the White House.
During his 2016 presidential transition, Trump signed the agreement with the GSA. By his inauguration, the transition had about 120 employees and disclosed $6.5 million in funds raised, as well as $2.4 million in reimbursements from the federal government.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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