Election 2024: How will Trump's transition to the presidency work?

Who is helping Trump in this process?

Trump's transition is being driven primarily by friends and family, including Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, as well as the president-elect's adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his running mate, JD Vance. Co-chairs of the transition are Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term.

Lutnick said this year's operation was “as different as possible” from the 2016 effort, which was first led by Chris Christie. After winning eight years ago, Trump fired Christie, scrapped the former New Jersey governor's plans and gave the job of leading the transition to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

Early in his first term, Trump assembled an initial Cabinet that included a few more mainstream Republicans and business leaders who ultimately disappointed him, broke publicly with him, or both. This time, Trump has promised to value loyalty as highly as possible – a philosophy that could see him making decisions more in line with his ideological beliefs and bombastic professional style.

Unlike Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, Trump's team did not sign transition agreements with the General Services Administration, which essentially acts as the federal government's landlord, before Election Day. As a result, he has already missed deadlines to agree with the GSA on logistical issues such as office space and technical support, and with the White House on access to authorities, including documents, staff and facilities.

New transition rules

In 2020, Trump argued that widespread voter fraud — which in fact did not occur — cost him the election and delayed the start of the transition from his outgoing administration to Biden's new administration for weeks.

Four years ago, Trump-appointed GSA head Emily Murphy determined that she had no legal authority to determine a winner in the presidential race because Trump was still challenging the results in court. This delayed funding and cooperation for the transition.

Only after Trump's efforts to undermine the election results in key states failed did Murphy agree to officially “identify a future president” and begin the transition process. Trump eventually announced on social media that his administration would cooperate.

To prevent such a delay in future transitions, the Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 requires the transition process to begin five days after the election — even if the winner is still in dispute. This is intended to avoid lengthy delays and means that “a 'positive determination' by GSA is no longer a requirement for receiving transition support services,” the agency's guidance on the new rules states.

The uncertainty lasted even longer after the 2000 election, when five weeks passed before the Supreme Court decided the disputed election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. That left Bush with about half the usual time to deal with the change in government of the outgoing Clinton administration. This ultimately led to questions about national security lapses that may have contributed to the U.S. being underprepared for the September 11 attacks the following year.