Donald Trump’s transition team won’t give up its cash grab, even if it gets in the way of managing a functioning government.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has been unable to make formal contact with the department because the Trump transition team has refused for months to sign off on an ethics agreement.
According to Politico, Kennedy’s inability to get information from the HHS that would help facilitate a smoother transition between the Biden and Trump administrations is an issue for all of the clowns Trump has so far named to important government positions.
Valerie Smith Boyd, the director of the Center for Presidential Transition that works with both parties during transitions, told Politico, “The main thing that it says is that the members of the transition team will be bound by an ethics agreement that ensures that they’re using information appropriately, that they limit the use of lobbyists and foreign agents, and that individuals who leave the transition and go back to the private sector won’t use this information for personal gain.”
Under the Presidential Transition Act, an incoming president is supposed to sign ethics and transparency agreements stipulating they will disclose the names of private donors and limit their contributions to $5,000. Those agreements come with federal money with which to pay for a transition team’s expenses.
Trump’s unprecedented refusal to sign off allows for undisclosed donors to fund the transition. That includes foreign donors, who are allowed to donate to the transition, though not to campaigns.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland have sent letters to the Biden administration and Trump, respectively, pointing out that not only was the ethics requirement signed into law by Trump himself in March 2020, the bill was a bipartisan layup between Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware (a Democrat) and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin (a Republican).
The first incoming Trump administration relied on being incompetent as its excuse for bungling its transition in 2017. This new administration seems to want to secure some swamp money up front.
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