President-elect Donald Trump’s team puts off transition traditions, including background checks
WASHINGTON — With a full slate of Cabinet nominees selected and a roster of White House advisers announced, President-elect Donald Trump officially launched the presidential transition this week by signing an agreement with the White House that allows for the transfer of information between the outgoing and incoming administrations.
However, Trump and his transition team are diverging from some decades-old ethics and security protocols outlined in the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. They have chosen to privately finance Trump’s transition effort rather than accept federal funding for office space, equipment, and staff provided through the Government Services Administration (GSA). Furthermore, Trump’s team has thus far avoided entering into an agreement with the FBI to conduct background checks on nominees.
Government watchdog groups and ethics lawyers have raised concerns that bypassing the traditional process may lead to transparency issues regarding who is financing the Trump transition effort and whether these donations grant their donors greater access and influence. In a statement, Trump’s transition team confirmed that donors will eventually be disclosed, emphasizing their goal to create “a self-sufficient organization.”
“The Transition will not utilize taxpayer funding for costs related to the transition, which is consistent with President Trump’s commitment to save taxpayers’ hard-earned money,” stated Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff.
Wiles mentioned that the transition team signed an agreement with the White House to enable transition staff to connect with government agencies for briefings in preparation for Trump’s inauguration on January 20. However, her statement explicitly noted that they opted against an agreement with the GSA.
“The Transition already has existing security and information protections built in, which means we will not require additional government and bureaucratic oversight,” Wiles added.
Brett Kappel, a government ethics attorney, explained that if Trump’s team had signed the traditional agreement with the GSA, they could still fundraise separately for the transition. Nonetheless, Kappel highlighted that donations would have been limited to $5,000 per donor, with public disclosure required on the GSA website.
By not signing the traditional agreement, Kappel noted there is no funding cap and minimal donor reporting requirements, apart from an IRS Form 990, which does not necessitate listing donor names and amounts.
“Essentially, if they don’t sign these agreements, the American public will know virtually nothing about how the transition was funded for a year,” Kappel stated. “If the transition is being run out of Mar-a-Lago, it may be that the largest recipient of funds from the transition is the president himself.”
After his 2016 victory, Trump did sign the conventional agreement with the GSA, but instead of utilizing federal workspace, he managed a significant portion of his transition out of Trump Tower in Manhattan. The agency confirmed that none of the $7 million in federal funds Trump was eligible for at the time was used to reimburse him for office space.
In 2016, Trump’s transition team established a fundraising arm, Trump for America, which raised $6.5 million for the transition, according to a memo obtained by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity. This document provided a broad list of donors, which included corporations like AT&T and Microsoft, as well as prominent figures like Robert Mercer and the late Sheldon Adelson. The memo also broadly categorized the spending of those funds, noting that $258,000 went towards rent and utilities.
During his first term, the Secret Service expended nearly $2 million on accommodations and services at Trump’s private properties, including Mar-a-Lago and his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, as per a 2022 analysis of public records conducted by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The Presidential Transition Act was put in place to establish nonpartisan protocols for a smooth transition of power, but there is no enforcement mechanism or requirement for participation, according to Meena Bose, director of Hofstra University’s Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.
“If the President Elect’s transition team doesn’t want those services, which has never happened before, they can’t really be forced to take it,” Bose explained. “We’ve never had a situation of trying to force a candidate to participate.”
The Trump transition team has also yet to formalize an agreement with the FBI to execute background checks on nominees prior to the Senate confirmation process.
Trump has long exhibited distrust toward the FBI, which previously investigated his 2016 campaign as well as his management of classified documents after leaving office. Bose speculated he might be waiting to appoint his own FBI director and staff before proceeding.
“After the inauguration he’ll have the authority to make decisions about background checks,” said Bose.
The Trump transition team did not respond when asked if and when they would establish an agreement with the FBI for background checks. Meanwhile, Democratic senators have called on the Trump team to move forward with FBI vetting to prevent delays in the confirmation process. Although Republicans are poised to regain control of Congress in January, some GOP senators, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, have publicly encouraged Trump to rely on the FBI for comprehensive background checks of his nominees.
Murkowski stated in a recent interview, “I get there is distrust by some of different agencies, and the FBI is not immune from that. But I do think it is vitally important, particularly from a national security perspective, that you have a level of vetting that is thorough.”
