Inside look: How presidential power transfer got complicated back in 2020
A look back at the unusual transition deal between two presidential teams from late-2020. The agreement had specific limitations that made it different from typical power transfers
Back in 2020 the Donald Trump transition group made a deal with Joe Bidens White-house team to start the power transfer process; however the agreement wasnt complete
The Trump side chose a non-standard path for the transition — they didnt take common resources that new teams usually get:
- federal money for transition costs
- basic office equipment and workspace
- standard security screening for staff members
- government-issued devices
The deal between teams had some big missing parts — most importantly the ethics document that new presidents need to sign (which helps stop conflicts-of-interest while in the White-house). This paper-work is actually required by law: the Presidential Transition Act says its needed‚ but the Trump team decided not to include it
The partial agreement showed how different this power transfer was from past ones — it was just enough to start moving control of federal departments to the new team‚ but without using many normal transition tools and methods. The deal focused only on basic agency hand-off steps‚ leaving out many usual transition activities
