Trump still hasn’t signed papers to officially start transition, White House says

More than two weeks after the 2024 election, the White House says President-elect Donald Trump and his team still haven’t executed the legal documents required to officially start the transition process.

Trump is due to take the presidential oath of office on the Capitol steps in just under 60 days. Yet, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the Trump-Vance team “not yet entered into the agreements with the White House and the General Service Administration” despite ongoing efforts to negotiate involving White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and his incoming Trump administration counterpart, Susie Wiles.

Last week, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said the Trump transition team was “breaking the law” by not signing the memoranda, which include required ethics agreements.

Jean-Pierre said Zients has “reached out” to Trump transition co-chairs Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon and has “consistently reiterated ... wanting to work together and making sure that they have what they need.”

“So we're going to continue to engage with the Trump transition team to ensure that we do have that efficient, effective transition of power, and in those conversations, we certainly are stressing that the White House and the administration stand ready to provide assistance, and that access to services and information,” she said. “So those conversations continue, and we want this to go smoothly, and that's what we're trying to get to.”

Without the signed documents, Trump’s team cannot access any government resources made available to incoming administrations. They cannot enter any government buildings or speak to any currently serving government personnel — including the Biden administration officials they are replacing.

“Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law. I would know because I wrote the law. Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement,” Warren wrote in a post on X/Twitter last week.

She added: “This is what illegal corruption looks like.”

Before September 1, candidates are supposed to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the General Services Administration to get a hold of support services. Before October 1, candidates are supposed to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the federal government regarding conditions of access to agencies — and that includes an ethics plan.

As of now, neither document has been executed.

The laws governing presidential transitions are set up to ensure both a peaceful transfer of power and to safeguard national security by allowing incoming officials to receive temporary security clearances required before they can be brought up to speed on threats facing the country.

After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the presidential commission charged with investigating the attacks found that the truncated transition between the Clinton administration and the George W Bush administration — caused by the disputed 2000 election which ended up in a recount that took months to resolve by the Supreme Court — resulted in delays before Bush’s team was able to get up to speed. The commission said national security was harmed by the delays, particularly by how they hampered the confirmation of Bush’s national security team.