Summary
Two weeks after his 2024 election victory, Donald Trump has yet to sign key transition agreements with the Biden administration and the General Services Administration (GSA), delaying security clearances, briefings, and resources for his incoming team.
The agreements include an ethics pledge aimed at preventing conflicts of interest, which Trump reportedly opposes.
Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have criticized Trump for potentially violating federal law.
Despite the holdup, Trump is moving forward with Cabinet appointments, though his pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, withdrew amid ethics investigations.
I’m starting to think the plan is never to sign. For those unaware all this does is get him and his team access to various briefings to bring them up to speed on where things are currently at. Y’know, minimize the chaos inherent in changing governments.
But Trump loves chaos. He loves to feel like he’s moving fast and breaking things. And most importantly, he loves having enemies.
What will actually happen here is that Biden will just give up and give Trump the briefings anyway (which he will ignore, or fail to turn to for). But if the Dems do dig their heels in, Trump will announce that they’re trying to block him from taking office. It’ll the be the start of what is almost certainly a four year project (and, to be clear, this is going to happen either way); blaming every screw up on “Democrat insiders” working to undermine them from within the government. This insidious enemy will be everywhere and anywhere, constantly working to disrupt all their beautifully laid plans.