The transition into Trump's second term begins quickly with a decisive election victory

Work on staffing the administration and developing policy goals will begin immediately. This is of particular importance for a new president who has vowed to reshape the federal bureaucracy and rid it of “deep state” enemies so that he can launch sweeping measures such as a massive deportation program on the first day of his presidency.

Compared to 2016, when his victory surprised the world and even his own team, Trump is better prepared to begin implementing his agenda on January 20. Graduates of his last term have spent the last four years laying the foundation for the to lay next.

“They’re in a much better position than they were in 2016,” said Jack Kingston, a former Georgia congressman and Trump surrogate for the primary campaign. “The first team was a rocky transition, a rocky crew, there were a lot of green people.”

This time, Kingston said, there is a “larger player pool” of Republicans eager to join the administration, unlike in 2016, when many credible GOP officials either opposed Trump or had no interest in joining his administration. Kingston said the Trump transition nominee began soliciting names for appointments to key federal agencies at least a month ago.

In particular, Trump's transition will benefit from a crucial resource that he denied President Biden four years ago: cooperation. While Trump refused to accept defeat in 2020, his administration refused to engage in fundamental aspects of the transition process. It wasn't until Nov. 24, nearly three weeks after Biden won the race, that the General Services Administration, a key federal agency, even recognized the victory.

As she acknowledged Wednesday in Washington, Harris pledged her and Biden's full support for a smooth transition. The GSA also issued a statement saying all resources would be made available to Trump.

But that doesn't mean the process goes smoothly. In the weeks leading up to the election, his team broke long-standing habits by refusing to enter into formal agreements with the Biden administration that would officially launch key aspects of the transition process.

According to Government Executive, a federal government trade publication, this decision could potentially slow the transition by delaying when new Trump personnel can arrive at federal agencies to begin discussing the handover process. In 2016, these memorandums of understanding required the Trump transition to provide the Obama administration with the names of everyone authorized to go to each federal agency and to certify that each person had agreed to transparency rules and a code of conduct.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the status of those agreements or the transition effort in general.

While this latest version of Trump's political machine is less burdened by feuds and infighting — the kind that led to Chris Christie being fired as interim chairman in 2016 just days after the election — Trump's GOP machine remains a circle of sharp elbows. There will almost certainly be intense competition for key administration posts and influence with the president-elect.

Evidence of a potential conflict emerged during the 2024 campaign itself, with Democrats focused intensely on new plans for a second Trump term, particularly one drawn up by his allies at the Heritage Foundation think tank. The draft, called Project 2025, outlined detailed policy and regulatory positions – some extreme, such as banning pornography – and also recommended specific personnel to fill an incoming government.

Democrats tried to make Project 2025 an unlikely bogeyman and tried to link Republicans to its unpopular proposals. In response, the Trump campaign aggressively distanced itself between the former president and the Heritage document — even though its architect, Russell Vought, was a senior Trump administration official — and promised that anyone associated with the draft would not secure a position if Trump won re-election.

After Trump's victory, however, some vocal conservatives bragged that the distancing measure was a lure. “It is my honor to tell you all that the 2025 project was real all along,” influential pro-Trump social media poster Benny Johnson tweeted on election night.

The final weeks of the campaign and the early hours of the transition period have shown that the transition could include a mix of well-known figures from Trump's past campaigns and administration, as well as power brokers who have quickly emerged in recent months.

The leaders of Trump's transition effort are Howard Lutnick, the billionaire chairman of famed Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, the pro-wrestling entrepreneur who became a powerful GOP activist in Trump's first administration and eventually head of the Small Business Administration was.

Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire CEO of Tesla and He was photographed spending time with Trump and his family at his Mar-a-Lago club on election night and on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, former independent presidential candidate turned Trump ally Robert F. Kennedy was repeatedly praised by Trump and his supporters as a leader who would quickly assume responsibility on public health issues. Kennedy has long expressed skepticism about vaccines, and although he is an environmentalist, Trump jokingly warned him on election night to “stay away from liquid gold,” or fossil fuels.

The other reports say they are Trumpworld supporters. According to Politico, Robert Lighthizer, who served as U.S. trade representative in the first administration, is leading the review of economic personnel, while John Ratcliffe, who was director of national intelligence under Trump, is reviewing national security and intelligence personnel.

In 2016, infighting over the Trump transition was believed to have hindered its progress, given how precious every hour in the spring leading up to the inauguration is.

While some Trump allies are optimistic that the transition will be much smoother in 2024, some are still reiterating their warning. “If you let the 75-day period pass,” Kingston said, “you won’t be able to recover.”

Sam Brodey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @sambrodey.