United States presidential transition

The use of the term "presidential transition" to describe the period between a president's election and assumption of office does not appear to have come to general usage until as late as 1948.^[7] The term "interregnum" has also been applied to this period of time.^[8] For much of U.S. history, they were far less elaborate operations and were carried out without very much advance planning or even cooperation from the outgoing president.^[7] Legally, a president-elect is not required to come to the capital until the inauguration and need not have substantial policy or procedural discussions with the outgoing administration.

It was not until the 1950s that much public attention was brought to the idea of presidential transitions.^[9] President Harry S. Truman set the stage for modern presidential transitions by offering to provide intelligence briefings to Republican Party candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower and then by inviting President-elect Eisenhower to the White House after his victory in the 1952 election. Eisenhower, smarting from an insult aimed at him by Truman during the campaign ("The general doesn't know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday."), declined to receive a direct briefing from Truman before the election.^[10] Truman also ordered federal agencies to assist with the transition. Eight years later, John F. Kennedy engaged in extensive transition planning on domestic and foreign policy issues, but did not meet with Eisenhower until December 6, 1960, four weeks after the election.^[11]

The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 88–277) established the mechanisms to facilitate an orderly and peaceful transition of power,^[1][2] and has been amended numerous times: by the Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act of 1998 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 100–398), the Presidential Transition Act of 2000 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 106–293 (text) (PDF)), the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 111–283 (text) (PDF)), the Presidential Transitions Improvements Act of 2015 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 114–136 (text) (PDF)), the Presidential Transition Act of 2019, and the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.

The Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 requires the General Services Administration to provide potential presidential transition teams with office space, facilities, funding for transition staff, and access to government services.^[6][12][13] For example, spending on Mitt Romney's transition team in 2012 was going to be $8.9 million, all funds appropriated by the federal government.^[13]

The Presidential Transition Act of 2019 requires the incumbent president to establish "transition councils" by June of an election year to facilitate a possible handover of power.^[14][15][16]

The transition process begins as leading presidential contenders forming a transition team to start making preliminary plans for building an administration and assuming the presidency should they be elected. This can take place at any time of the candidate's choosing. In 2008, the presidential campaign of Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama began informally planning for a possible presidential transition several months before Election Day. Obama's transition team, called the "Obama-Biden Transition Project", analysed prior transition efforts, the workings of federal government agencies, and what priority positions needed to be filled by the incoming administration first.^[17] In April 2012, before Mitt Romney became the Republican Party nominee, the Romney presidential campaign began planning for a potential transition. Romney's transition team made extensive plans for the transfer of power, called the "Romney Readiness Project", which also included a legislative agenda for the first 200 days of a Romney administration.^[18][19]

During the 2016 presidential election cycle, Donald Trump began assembling his transition team in May, after he became the presumptive Republican nominee. His fall campaign opponent, Hillary Clinton, lagged behind in this regard, not forming a team until August, which was after she became the Democratic nominee.^[20] Key activities in this pre-election phase include: setting goals for the transition; assembling and organizing the key transition team staff; allocating responsibilities among the team and allocating resources and personnel for each core work stream; developing an overall management work plan to guide the team through the entire transition process; and establishing relationships with Congress, the outgoing administration, General Services Administration, the Office of Government Ethics, the FBI and the Office of Personnel Management to encourage information sharing and to begin the security clearance process for select personnel.^[21]

The GSA administrator officially determines the "apparent winner" of a presidential election. If it is not the incumbent president, the winner can access federal agencies and transition funds.^[22] To free government funds, the GSA Administrator is required to issue an "ascertainment" letter declaring a non-incumbent candidate the "apparent winner" of an election. The declaration marks the official start of the transition, without which the winning candidate's transition team is not entitled to government funding, secure office space, equipment and access to agencies.^[23][24][25] The right to the ownership and confidentiality of emails and phone records produced by the transition team is, however, not secure as against the GSA and the government.^[26]

There are no firm rules on how the GSA determines the president-elect. Typically, the GSA chief might make the decision after reliable news organizations have declared the winner or following a concession by the loser.^[27] The GSA administrator's declaration releases about $9.9 million in transition funds for salary, support, and computer systems; allow transition officials to establish government email addresses and receive federal office space; and allow the transition team to start work with the Office of Government Ethics on required financial disclosure and conflict-of-interest forms for incoming nominees.^[28]

The actual transition phase begins immediately following the presidential election (barring any electoral disputes) when a sitting president is not re-elected or is concluding a second term. In the case of the Obama-Trump transition, on the day after the election, November 9, 2016, outgoing president Barack Obama made a statement from the Rose Garden of the White House in which he announced that he had spoken the previous evening with (apparent election winner) Donald Trump and formally invited him to the White House for discussions to ensure "that there is a successful transition between our presidencies." Obama said he had instructed his staff to "follow the example" of the administration of George W. Bush in 2008, who he said could "not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition".^[29] This phase of the process lasts between 72 and 78 days, ending on the inauguration day. During this time, the transition team must handle the influx of campaign staff and additional personnel into daily operations and prepare to take over the functions of government. Key activities in this phase include staffing the office of the president-elect; deploying agency review teams; building out the president-elect's management and policy agendas and schedule; and identifying the key talent necessary to execute the new president's priorities.^[21]

It is the practice for Cabinet secretaries and high-level political appointees to tender their resignation with effect on the Inauguration Day (January 20) of a new president. The deputy secretaries are also expected to tender their resignation, but are commonly requested to stay on in an acting capacity until the confirmation by the Senate of the new secretary.^{[citation needed]}

Presidential transitions have existed in one form or another since 1797, when retiring president George Washington passed the presidency to John Adams, winner of the 1796 United States presidential election. Despite most going smoothly, many have been bumpy and a few verged on catastrophic.^[30]

Buchanan–Lincoln

During the 1860–61 transition from James Buchanan to Abraham Lincoln (November 6, 1860 to March 4, 1861), seven states seceded in February. Buchanan held the opinion that states did not have the right to secede, but that it was also illegal for the federal government to go to war to stop them. Buchanan peacefully transferred power to Lincoln on March 4, 1861. The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, just a month after Lincoln took office.

Grant–Hayes

In the 1876 election to succeed Ulysses S. Grant, there were disputes regarding 20 electoral votes in four states—enough to guarantee a majority for either Rutherford B. Hayes or Samuel J. Tilden—along with multiple allegations of electoral fraud. This made it unclear who would take the president's office on inauguration day. This constitutional crisis was resolved only two days before the scheduled inauguration through the Compromise of 1877 under which federal troops were withdrawn from the South, and the Reconstruction era was brought to an end.

Hoover–Roosevelt

The 1932–33 transition (November 8, 1932 to March 4, 1933) from Herbert Hoover to Franklin D. Roosevelt was during the Great Depression.

After the election, Roosevelt refused Hoover's requests for a meeting to come up with a joint program to stop the crisis and calm investors, claiming it would limit his options, and as this "would guarantee that Roosevelt took the oath of office amid such an atmosphere of crisis that Hoover had become the most hated man in America".^[31] During this period, the U.S. economy suffered after thousands of banks failed.^[32]The relationship between Hoover and Roosevelt was one of the most strained between presidents: while Hoover had little good to say about his successor, there was little he could do. Roosevelt, however, supposedly could—and did—engage in various spiteful official acts aimed at his predecessor, ranging from dropping him from the White House birthday greetings message list to having Hoover's name struck from the Hoover Dam along the Colorado River border, which would officially be known only as Boulder Dam until 1947.

Clinton–Bush

The 2000–01 transition from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush was shortened by several weeks due to the Florida recount crisis that ended after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Bush v. Gore which made Bush the president-elect.

Due to the recount effort and litigation between Bush and his presidential opponent Al Gore leaving the election undecided until December 12, 2000, Bush's official transition was the shortest in United States history, at just 39 days.^[33]

Bush–Obama

The 2008–09 transition from Bush to Barack Obama was considered seamless, with Bush granting Obama's request to ask Congress to release $350 billion of bank bailout funds.^[34] At the start of his inaugural speech, Obama praised Bush "for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and co-operation he has shown throughout this transition".^[35] The White House website was redesigned and “cut over” at exactly 12:01pm, January 20, 2009. This was described by some as a "new inaugural tradition spawned by the Internet-age".^[36] Additionally, the information system was provided to the Obama administration without a single electronic record from the previous administration. Not only were emails and photos removed from the environment at the 12:01pm threshold, data elements like phone numbers of individual offices and upcoming meetings for the senior staff were also removed.

Nonetheless, by April 2012, the Bush administration had transferred electronic records for the presidential components within the Executive Office of the President to the National Archives and Records Administration. Included in these records was more than 80 terabytes of data, more than 200 million emails and 4 million photos.^[37]

Obama–Trump

On the evening of November 8, 2016, the day of the presidential election, outgoing president Barack Obama spoke with presumptive winner Donald Trump and formally invited him to the White House for November 10, for discussions to ensure "that there is a successful transition between our presidencies".

Early on November 9, media outlets projected Trump would secure enough votes in the Electoral College to win the presidential election, and Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton conceded the election to him later that day.^[38] Also on November 9, GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth^[39] issued the "ascertainment letter” to officially designate Trump president-elect,^[40] and the transition team was provided office space and were also eligible for government funding for staff. Also on November 9, Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence were offered the full President's Daily Brief, with the first briefing taking place on November 15.^[41][42] The Trump transition website was launched on November 9.^[43]

The Trump transition team was led by Mike Pence and had six vice-chairs: former transition head Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Newt Gingrich, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani and Jeff Sessions.^[44]

Trump–Biden

Incumbent president Donald Trump prematurely claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election on Election Day, November 3 and demanded all further vote counting cease. The president also alleged widespread fraud, corruption and other misconduct, and commenced multiple lawsuits in multiple states seeking a halt to counting, rejection of votes, preventing certification of results, besides other remedies.^[45] Trump claimed that 2.7 million votes were "deleted" by the digital voting system used in some states, and said votes were switched from him to Joe Biden. Officials called the 2020 election the most secure in history and officials from all fifty states refuted claims of fraud.^[46][47]

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden became generally acknowledged as the president-elect on November 7, 2020.^{[48][49][50][51]} The GSA Administrator, Emily Murphy, a Trump appointee, initially refused to issue the "ascertainment" letter declaring Biden the "apparent winner", on the basis that the election result was disputed. The declaration would mark the official start of the transition: withholding it denied the Biden transition team full funds, secure office space, and access to agencies.^[23][24][25] (Following the 2016 presidential election, the acting GSA administrator issued the "ascertainment" letter the next day, on November 9, 2016.^[40]) Biden had also been denied daily classified national security briefings.^[52] Further, the State Department denied access to communications from foreign leaders, leaving the Biden team to communicate through other unofficial channels.^[53] According to CBS News, "In past transitions, the State Department has facilitated the logistics of the calls and provided translation services, possible talking points, and even taken notes".^[54]

On November 23, Murphy issued the letter of ascertainment naming Biden as the "apparent winner", making funds available for him towards the transition, although Trump had still not conceded.^[55] After pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump offered a statement that "My focus now turns to a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power", although he continued to reiterate his false claims of widespread fraud and irregularities. President Trump did not attend Biden's inauguration, which made him the first president not to attend the inauguration of his elected successor since Andrew Johnson was absent from the first inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant in 1869. Vice President Mike Pence attended Biden's inauguration.^[56][57]

• Contingent election, procedure used in U.S. presidential elections in cases where no candidate wins an absolute majority of votes in the Electoral College
• Midnight regulations, rules created by an outgoing administration before it leaves office
• Former Presidents Act
• Political transition team

• "Presidential Transition Act: Provisions and Funding". Congressional Research Service. November 13, 2020.
• Brown, Heath (2023). "Status and expertise: A typology of US presidential transition team members". Presidential Studies Quarterly.

• 2024 Presidential Transition Directory from the General Services Administration
• Presidential Transition Directory archived website from the General Services Administration
• Presidential Transition Act of 1963 as amended (PDF/details) in the GPO Statute Compilations collection