WASHINGTON − President-elect Donald Trump reached an agreement Tuesday with outgoing President Joe Biden’s White House that will allow for the official transition of power to finally begin three weeks after Trump’s election victory.
But Trump is not signing a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, which would have unlocked federal funding, government buildings and cybersecurity technology for the transition. Instead, his transition will be backed by private donors and operate as a “self-sufficient organization.”
The memorandum of understanding between Trump and the Biden White House − announced by Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles − enables Trump and his transition team to access non-public government information, receive government briefings and deploy personnel inside the federal agencies and departments they will soon take over.
“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,” Wiles said in a statement.
Under the Presidential Transition Act, transition agreements were supposed to be signed Oct. 1 ahead of Election Day. CNN and other media outlets reported Trump had concerns about a mandatory ethics pledge in the GSA memorandum of understanding − which remains remains unsigned − that included avoiding conflicts of interest in the White House.
Rather than the GSA’s ethics pledge, the Trump transition team said it plans to use its “existing ethics plan for those involved,” which will meet federal requirements and be posted on the General Services Administration’s website.
Although Trump is vowing not to use taxpayer funding for transition costs, the financial arrangement was not immediately clear. The New York Times reported over the weekend that Trump has so far kept secret the donors who are funding his transition.
“Donors to the transition will be disclosed to the public,” the Trump transition team said in a statement on the new agreement. “Consistent with Transition policy already in place, the Transition will not accept foreign donations.”
In a break from protocol of past presidential transitions, Trump’s Cabinet nominees have not undergone FBI vetting.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has criticized Trump’s handling of the transition, said his team’s announcement “fails to answer key questions about national security threats and FBI vetting of nominees, and increases concerns about corruption.”
“There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition’s ethics agreement and the letter of the law,” Warren said in a statement. “The reliance on private donors to fund the transition is nothing more than a ploy for well-connected Trump insiders to line their pockets while pretending to save taxpayers money.”
Biden ensured a smooth transition in a Rose Garden speech following Trump’s election victory over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Biden’s vice president. Biden welcomed Trump to the White House for a Nov. 13 meeting in a display of that commitment.
“Like President Biden said to the American people from the Rose Garden and directly to President-elect Trump, he is committed to an orderly transition,” White House spokeswoman Saloni Sharma said in a statement.
Sharma said the agreement between Trump and the Biden White House will allow authorized members of the Trump transition team to have access to White House employees, facilities and information. She said the Trump transition team has also agreed to “important safeguards” to protect non-public information and prevent conflicts of interest, including who has access to the information and how the information is shared.
“While we do not agree with the Trump transition team’s decision to forgo signing the GSA MOU, we will follow the purpose of the Presidential Transition Act, which clearly states that ‘any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and wellbeing of the United States and its people.'”
