What transition for Donald Trump?
Donald Trump’s return to the White House will be accompanied by the establishment of a new administration. The one in 2024 should be radically different from the one in 2020, which was delayed by Donald Trump’s challenge to the election results: it did not start before November 23.
- Transition team announced in July
Donald Trump announced the formation of his transition team on August 16. Its co-chairs are Howard Lutnick, CEO of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, former administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration during the first Trump administration. They are flanked by Robert Kennedy Jr., former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and JD Vance, who hold the title of honorary vice presidents.
Howard Lutnick said that this transition will be “as different as possible” starting in 2016, which was led by Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and the then vice president-elect, Mike Pence. The first administration included moderate Republicans and business leaders, such as Rex Tillerson, the former head of oil giant Exxon Mobil who later broke with Donald Trump. In 2024, Donald Trump promised to value loyalty as much as possible.
But unlike Kamala Harris’ campaign, Trump’s team has not signed a pre-election transition agreement with the General Services Administration (GSA). He ran out of time to reach an agreement with the GSA on logistical issues such as office space and technical support and with the White House on access to agencies, including documents, employees and facilities.
Robert Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk in the Trump administration
The president-elect has a seventy-five day transition period to assemble his team before the inauguration on January 20. One of the main tasks is to fill around 4,000 positions, from the Secretary of State to the heads of different administrations. About 1,200 of these presidential nominations require Senate confirmation, which will be easy: Republicans are in control.
For his new term, Donald Trump already mentioned some names in his speech on Wednesday morning: Robert Kennedy Jr. will be chosen for “help make America healthy again”adding that “we will let him do it”. Elon Musk could become federal health secretary “cost reduction” and suggested he could find billions of dollars in government spending to cut.
The transition is not just about filling positions: most presidents-elect also receive daily or near-daily intelligence briefings during the transition.
In 2008, outgoing President George W. Bush personally briefed President-elect Barack Obama on US covert operations. As Trump prepared to take office in 2016, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, briefed Michael Flynn, his designated successor in the new administration.
To avoid a stalemate like the one in 2020, the Presidential Transition Enhancement Act of 2022 requires the transition process to begin five days after the election, even if the winner remains in dispute.
