00:00The transfer of presidential power in the U.S. can cost tens of millions of dollars,
00:08between office space, security briefings, and background checks for new staff.
00:14Incoming presidents have had to rely on both federal funds and private donors to foot the
00:19giant bill.
00:21But Donald Trump is the first leader in U.S. history to decline federal funds for his transition.
00:28He has several very wealthy donors that have more than enough money to pay for the things
00:33that their transition needs.
00:34He's also refusing to sign government forms that would require him to disclose how much
00:40his donors gave.
00:42No one is able to look at those donations and see, is this person getting a role in
00:47the administration?
00:48There's any number of things that they could influence Trump on.
00:52So what are the costs associated with a presidential transition?
00:57And how could this one change future transfers of power?
01:03The new occupant of the White House and his predecessor meet in a unique joint session.
01:08It's the culmination of one of the best-managed transitions between administrations in the
01:12nation's history.
01:14Presidential transitions have always been complicated.
01:17And for almost 200 years, there weren't any laws governing them.
01:22Kaitlin Oprisco covers money in politics for Politico.
01:26Up until about the 1960s, presidential transitions were entirely privately funded.
01:32John F. Kennedy defeated GOP standard-bearer Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential
01:37elections on record.
01:38The incoming president's political party would usually foot the bill for those expenses.
01:45For example, in 1960, John F. Kennedy's transition was partly funded by the Democratic
01:51National Committee, or DNC.
01:55That was standard practice at the time.
01:58But in 1963, Congress decided to streamline the process and came up with the Presidential
02:05Transition Act.
02:06That allowed presidents-elect to access federal funding and federal resources for their transitions,
02:13obviously with the caveat that, you know, when you bring in those federal funds, you
02:17have a limit on them and you have to disclose them.
02:21By law, every election year, the sitting president needs to propose a budget for the
02:26transition.
02:27Congress then has to approve it, earmark that money, and hand it over to the General
02:32Services Administration, or GSA.
02:35The General Services Administration is the government agency that supports the basic
02:40functions of government, and it also oversees the presidential transition.
02:44It's an independent body, which means it isn't connected to either political side,
02:50and keeps track of all the transition funds, spending them on things like phones and computers,
02:57and making sure they're secure so no one can steal data, which could compromise national
03:02security.
03:03The agency pays expenses for the outgoing administration during the transition process.
03:09It also provides office space in one of roughly 8,000 government buildings, and furnishes
03:15it.
03:16And President Harry Truman, who created the GSA back in 1949, made its first task renovating
03:23the White House after a piano fell through the floor.
03:27Reconstruction was undertaken because architects called the building unsafe.
03:31But since then, critics have accused the agency of wasteful spending, like when it allegedly
03:37used over $800,000 to send government staff to Las Vegas during the Obama administration.
03:44The GSA even has a fleet of over 200,000 cars it vets for safety.
03:50It leases them out for new and existing staff.
03:53It trains incoming staff, too, which is an important part of every transition, especially
03:59if they've never worked in government.
04:01When the president-elect nominates people for the cabinet, the GSA is normally the agency
04:06that will conduct the background checks on that.
04:09All that federal support comes with terms and conditions that candidates have to agree
04:15to when they sign the GSA documents, usually before the election even happens.
04:21If you sign the GSA paperwork to accept federal funding and federal help, the GSA caps private
04:29donations at $5,000 per donor.
04:32Donors don't just have to be a person, they could be a company or another organization.
04:37It does also prohibit donations from foreign nationals.
04:41Beyond that, incoming administrations can add even more voluntary restrictions, like
04:47the Biden transition did not accept donations from fossil fuel companies, lobbyists, registered
04:54foreign agents.
04:56Every president since the enactment of the Presidential Transition Act has signed the
05:01GSA documents, which also allows transition teams to use donor funds if the federal money
05:07runs out.
05:09Because it usually does.
05:10In 2000, the Clinton-Bush transition got $5.3 million from the federal government and raised
05:17another $3 million to supplement it.
05:20The Bush-to-Obama transition got $8.5 million in 2008 and raised $6.7 million to pay for
05:27the rest.
05:29In 2016, Trump signed the GSA documents too, so his transition got $9.9 million from the
05:37federal government.
05:38But the donations he disclosed that year, as part of the GSA's terms, raised some eyebrows.
05:44Trump's first transition in 2016 and 2017 raised $6.5 million from private donors.
05:51Some of that spending, it sparked some accusations that Trump was using that money to line his
05:57own pockets because his transition disclosed spending hundreds of thousands of dollars
06:02on rent payments when a lot of the transition was based in Trump Tower in New York City,
06:08which is a building that Trump owns and gets profits on.
06:12Another point of concern was what his donors were getting in return.
06:17Several of the donors to Trump's first transition were later named to his cabinet.
06:23That includes Betsy DeVos, who is the education secretary.
06:26Betsy DeVos' family sent 10 individual checks, each for $5,000, the GSA's cap.
06:34Steve Mnuchin's family sent money too.
06:36His brother donated to the transition and Steve Mnuchin was named treasury secretary.
06:42Only one of the donors to Biden's transition in 2020 was given a cabinet seat, Dr. Irati
06:48Pragbhakar, the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, who sent $500.
06:55But despite concerns, the government hasn't raised the federal transition budget enough
07:01to help reduce the need for private donations.
07:04In fact, they've only become more important.
07:07In 2020, Biden got $9.9 million in federal funds for his transition.
07:13That may seem like a lot, but GSA disclosures show it spent $1 million just training incoming
07:21staff and briefing them.
07:23It spent another $6 million issuing its contracts, a quarter million on office space and furniture,
07:31and another roughly $15,000 on office supplies.
07:35All that is pretty standard.
07:37The money adds up fast, especially that year.
07:40They were in the middle of a pandemic.
07:42They had a lot of health concerns that they wanted to be wary of, and so that needed extra
07:48money.
07:50At the time, the GSA couldn't offer support until it certified a winner, which happened
07:55on November 23rd.
07:57Meaning that the Biden transition wasn't able to access federal resources, including
08:02intelligence briefings or just office space.
08:06The delay meant the Biden team ended up raising $22 million in private donations, so it could
08:12start working.
08:15To prepare for 2024, Congress updated the Presidential Transition Act to make sure both
08:21candidates could access funding quickly if an election took longer to call.
08:27It allocated $10.4 million in federal money to this year's transition.
08:32To access those funds, both candidates were asked to submit an ethics plan by October
08:381st, saying how they would handle conflicts of interest.
08:42The agency needs time to review it, so it's ready to release funding and resources to
08:48either team should they win.
08:50Kamala Harris' team did that, but Trump's did not, which sparked some questions about
08:55whether he would.
08:57He missed the deadline, but turned it in in November, writing that his team wouldn't
09:02accept money from foreign agents or lobbyists.
09:05But in a statement, his team also said that it would not take federal funds to save taxpayer
09:11dollars, or sign the GSA documents.
09:15Trump has several very wealthy people in his inner circle, including Elon Musk, the Tesla
09:21CEO, and Howard Lutnick, the transition co-chair and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO.
09:29We must elect Donald J. Trump president.
09:35And even if Trump were to not receive any federal funding for his transition, those
09:40two men, or any of the other very wealthy donors that he surrounds himself with, have
09:45more than enough money to kind of pick up that slack.
09:49It obviously raises the ethical question of whether that would buy them outsized influence
09:54in a Trump administration.
09:56They could have more influence over cabinet picks or other appointees in the administration,
10:02policy changes or policy priorities.
10:05In a statement on November 26th, Trump's team said it would eventually disclose its
10:10list of donors for 2024.
10:13But without a signature on the GSA documents, the $5,000 cap goes out the window.
10:19He also doesn't have to say how much each donor gave.
10:23No one is able to look at those donations and see, you know, is this person getting
10:28a role in the administration?
10:31The incoming president has already named wealthy donors to his campaign, like Howard Lettnick
10:36to his cabinet.
10:37As well as Linda McMahon, who gave more than $21 million to Trump's re-election bid.
10:44And Scott Besant, who donated over $600,000.
10:49Trump also promised billionaire Elon Musk a seat in his administration.
10:54This will truly be the golden age of America.
10:58That's what we have to hope for.
10:59We don't know yet whether the Tesla CEO is donating to Trump's transition fund.
11:05But the money someone like Musk could bring to the table, and the fact that we may never
11:10know just how much he did, could change the game for every future transfer of power.
11:16One thing that could come out of this is you could see government watchdog groups and transparency
11:22advocates pushing for greater disclosure into transition funding and spending, regardless
11:28of whether the candidate signs the GSA memorandum.
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