Trump’s refusal, so far, to accept transition assistance creates ‘real risk,’ observers say

Donald Trump's presidential campaign has missed deadlines to accept assistance from the federal government to prepare for a transition should he win the election, potentially making a change in administration even more stressful for federal employees. 

Presidential campaigns are supposed to conclude two memorandums of understanding about transition assistance: the first by Sept. 1 with the General Services Administration, concerning office space and information technology; and the second by Oct. 1 with the White House, to cover transition staffers’ access to federal agency facilities, documents, and employees. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign reached its agreement with GSA on Sept. 19, almost three weeks late, and a Biden administration official told Government Executive in a statement that it has entered an MOU with Harris, although such a document has not yet been made public. Her campaign has posted its accompanying ethics plan for transition-team members. (Sample: "Transition Team members will avoid both actual and apparent conflicts of interest.")

The official said that the federal transition coordinator is “actively working with the Trump transition team to complete an MOU.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment but has previously told Government Executive that it is continuing “to evaluate and communicate with GSA about the options related to the support offered by GSA.” 

A GSA spokesperson said that the agency “is prepared to begin providing services to the Trump transition team once an MOU is executed.” 

It would be challenging for the White House to establish the second agreement with Trump without the first, because GSA provides the secure networks and .gov email addresses that enable federal employees to safely exchange information with verified individuals. 

Agencies "need to plan. There’s a lot of investment that goes in, so the uncertainty of not having those MOUs in place presents a real challenge to them,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, at a press briefing on Monday. “There’s going to be a ton of work that has to be done…the early investment is critical to get it done and not to put even more burden on the career civil servants.” 

PPS, a nonpartisan good-government group, hosts a Center for Presidential Transition that provides assistance to campaigns and agencies with respect to changes in administration. 

Valerie Smith Boyd, who leads the PPS Center for Presidential Transition, said the agreement with the White House is necessary for the incoming administration to access the agencies it is about to manage. 

“We have one president at a time. The federal agencies are part of the current administration. And for federal agencies to share information and to meet with a president-elect, it's important to define the terms of where that takes place [and] what type of information may be shared at a high level,” she said. 

While the MOUs are optional, Stier argued they’re “optional at a real risk.” 

“On this proposition [of] ‘we don't trust the government,’ that's a problem, because at the end of the day, if you're running it, you're going to have to be trusting it,” he said. “There may be elements of things that you're concerned about, but you're going to need to engage, and if you don't engage, that really will put our country in jeopardy.”

Boyd said other aspects of transition planning are moving along. 

The White House has set up a Transition Coordinating Council composed of senior Biden administration officials. Both campaigns have named leaders for their transition teams. And each agency has named an employee in the career Senior Executive Service as transition director. 

Eric Katz contributed to this report.