The return of Donald Trump to the White House will be accompanied by the establishment of a new administration. That of 2024 should be radically different from that of 2020, which was delayed by Donald Trump's challenge to the results of the election: it did not begin before November 23.
Donald Trump announced the formation of his transition team on August 16. Its co-chairs are Howard Lutnick, the CEO of the investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, a former administrator of the US Small Business Administration in the first Trump administration. They are flanked by Robert Kennedy Jr., former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and JD Vance, who have the title of honorary vice presidents.
Howard Lutnick said this transition will be “as different as possible” from that of 2016, which was led by Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and the vice-president-elect at the time, Mike Pence. The first administration included moderate Republicans and business leaders, such as Rex Tillerson, the former head of oil giant Exxon Mobil who later broke with Donald Trump. In 2024, Donald Trump promised to value loyalty as much as possible.
But unlike Kamala Harris' campaign, Trump's team has not signed a pre-election transition agreement with the General Services Administration (GSA). She ran out of time to agree with the GSA on logistical issues like office space and technical support and with the White House on access to agencies, including documents, employees and facilities.
Robert Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk in the Trump administration
The president-elect has a transition period of seventy-five days to build his team before the inauguration on January 20. One of the main tasks is to fill around 4,000 positions, from the secretary of state to the heads of different administrations. About 1,200 of these presidential nominations require Senate confirmation, which will be easy: Republicans have control.
For his new mandate, Donald Trump has already mentioned a few names in his speech on Wednesday morning: Robert Kennedy Jr. will be chosen for “help make America healthy again”adding that “we’ll let him do it”. Elon Musk could become a federal secretary of health “cost reduction” and suggested he may find billions of dollars in government spending to cut.
The transition isn't just about filling positions: Most presidents-elect also receive daily or near-daily intelligence briefings during the transition.
In 2008, outgoing President George W. Bush personally briefed President-elect Barack Obama on U.S. covert operations. When Trump was preparing to take office in 2016, Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, briefed Michael Flynn, his designated successor in the new administration.
To avoid a deadlock like in 2020, the Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 requires that the transition process begin five days after the election, even if the winner is still contested.
