Donald Trump has expressed confidence in his chances of being re-elected in November, but a new report claims that, behind the scenes, he has started the process of preparing a transition in cases he loses.
As PBS News reported, Trump has started on the deployment of the Presidential Transition Act, which was established by Congress in 2015 to ensure a smooth transition of power from one presidential administration to the next. Trump will be required to name members of a transition council no more than six months before November’s election, including a senior White House member who will chair the council. The report claimed that Trump is planning to appoint Chris Liddell, his deputy chief of staff for policy coordination.
Experts say that with the economic and public health crisis now facing the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the likelihood that there will still be turmoil in November and beyond, a smooth transition would be more important than ever in the event that Trump loses.
“The relevance of transition planning has intensified since it could be the first election since 1932 where we had more than 20 percent unemployment, more than twice as high as the unemployment rate in 2008. You add to that a health crisis and the potential for a virtual transition. The degree of complexity has increased significantly,” David Marchick, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, told PBS News .
As NBC News reported, presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden has also started to put together plans for a transition team in case he were to win the election. In a conference call with donors last week, Biden admitted that it “sounds presumptuous” of him to start this process, but he noted that there are a number of vacancies throughout the federal government that Donald Trump’s administration has either created or chosen not to fill, so he would need to be ready to make a number of appointments early into a term.
“I don’t want it to sound like that, but it has to happen and that’s why the transition team is already being put together,” Biden told his donors.
Some of Trump’s opponents have expressed worries that there may not be a smooth transition if Trump loses in November, and Trump has joked about the idea of remaining in office for longer than the two terms he may legally serve per the U.S. Constitution.
