What we know about the transition so far

Washington
CNN
—

With the presidential election calling for President-elect Donald Trump, the Biden administration is now preparing for a peaceful transfer of power to its predecessor in 76 days – even as Trump's team actively skipped a number of key deadlines during the initial planning process.

Representatives from Trump's team met with federal transition planners last week to discuss “post-election readiness,” according to a White House official.

However, the president-elect still has not signed key memorandums of understanding with the Biden administration to set in motion transition activities that could begin as early as Wednesday to ensure the next administration can hit the ground running quickly and get the information it needs.

“I don't believe it's possible to conduct an effective transition without entering into the memorandums of understanding to access critical federal support,” Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, told CNN.

Stier added: “The Biden team will undoubtedly do everything they can to close this circle, but there are legal limits to what they can do without the Trump team's agreement to follow the law.”

Led by the White House Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration, planning for a transition began before either the Republican or Democratic parties had selected their 2024 nominee.

CNN has reached out to OMB and GSA for comment.

Trump's transition team is chaired by Linda McMahon, who led the Small Business Administration during his first term, and Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald.

By September 1, both Trump and Harris campaigns should sign a memorandum of understanding with the GSA, giving them access to office space, communications, equipment and IT support. Campaigns were also expected to submit an ethics plan and identify the first people who would need security clearances to begin receiving sensitive information during a transition.

Trump's team did not sign this memorandum.

The GSA “stands ready to provide services to the Trump transition team as soon as a letter of intent is signed and services are accepted,” a GSA spokesperson said.

The federal transition coordinator, a White House spokesperson told CNN, is “actively working” with the president-elect's transition team to finalize his memorandum of understanding.

By October 1, both Harris and Trump were expected to sign a separate memorandum of understanding with the White House outlining the conditions for access to authorities, including personnel, facilities and documents.

Trump's transition team also failed to meet this deadline.

Rejecting federal government support is “an enormous and unnecessary risk to national security and preparedness,” Stier said.

The Biden administration began preparing for this transition in 2023, starting with the appointment of a federal transition coordinator, a senior career official who will serve as the primary liaison between the candidates and the eventual president-elect. Activity increased in early 2024, and in April OMB released a memo to each federal agency outlining what needed to be done.

The Agency Transition Directors Council, co-chaired by OMB Deputy Director Jason Miller and GSA Federal Transition Coordinator Aimee Whiteman, began meeting monthly with career representatives from each agency.

Career civil servants – of which there are more than 2 million – generally serve from administration to administration, while political appointees – of which there are about 4,000 – serve under a president and resign at the start of a new administration, although they can stay if they be asked for by the new team.

Each government agency had until September 15 to develop a succession plan for all of its senior political officials. And by November 1, each agency had to have prepared briefing materials for the future president-elect's team.

The goal of these briefing materials is to “inform the next administration about what lies ahead, what the problems are, what the administration has done to address them, and where they believe priorities should be moving forward.” says Valerie Boyd, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service.

These materials focus less on politics and more on organizational structure, logistical information, and topics such as budget processes and the distribution of political appointees. The memos and briefing materials serve as a “useful guide” to organize expected talks between the Biden administration and the next administration's transition team, a senior administration official told CNN.

While organizations like Stier's have worked in recent years to institutionalize the transition process, the specter of partisanship is ever-present, raising questions about how — or whether — such briefing materials would be used by a future administration.

Several Biden appointees who also served under former President Barack Obama have pointed out that their experiences preparing for the 2016 transition provided both muscle memory and a cautionary tale: hours spent preparing memos and briefings could be taken over by a new government that has no desire or need for it.

“We waited for the calls (from the Trump team), for people to show up, and they never did. They never accepted our memos,” said a senior official who served under both Presidents Joe Biden and Obama. The Trump campaign, this official said, has “shown no indication that they want to use anything we provide to them.”

According to CNN, Trump has also indicated that he plans to make sweeping changes to career civil servants in the federal government, including converting thousands of those positions into politically appointed positions. Political experts have warned that federal employees could be fired if they prioritize loyalty to Trump over serving the public interest.

These experts warn that the moves would hollow out and politicize the federal workforce, laying off many of the most experienced and knowledgeable employees and opening the door to corruption and a system of political patronage.