The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Partnership for Public Service wants President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team to pick up the pace ahead of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
In 1988, the group — which has the mission to make the federal government more effective — started the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition and has partnered with presidential campaigns’ transition teams to help ensure smooth transfers of power and second-term planning for decades.
“No successful political leader can actually get anything done without actually taking over our government in an effective way, and that’s what the transition is about,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of Partnership for Public Service. “The Trump team has approached this in a, frankly, different way than any other prior transition operation has.”
Stier explained that this is unlike the previous Trump administration. In 2016, the Trump team set up its transition operations in the spring of the election year, which, according to Stier, is the right time to start.
“They have, up until now, walked past all of the traditional and vital agreements with the federal government, originally with the General Services Administration, which is an opportunity that exists preelection to get resources, and even to this day, with the White House, which is the gatekeeper for getting access to agencies and critical information about what is actually happening on the ground,” said Stier.
Stier added that these are critical elements to being actually prepared to govern on Day One, and hopes that the Trump team comes to terms with the Biden administration.
In his first speech to the nation since Trump’s victory on Tuesday, President Joe Biden said he had encouraged his team to “work with (Trump’s) team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition.”
Hundreds of potential Trump employees will need background checks before they can get a security clearance, according to PPS. But Stier said the Trump team has so far disregarded the Department of Justice, which provides security clearances that “equip their team with the ability to get nonpublic and classified information.”
WTOP asked Stier what would happen if this was not done before Trump was inaugurated.
“President Trump still gets sworn in as the president of the United States, and he can’t be ready to take over our government in a way that is safe for all of us. It is simply not possible. You will not have the larger team around him that is essential to running our government up to speed and available to enter into leadership positions across our government,” Stier said.