What’s next for Donald Trump as he prepares to enter the White House?

Donald Trump regained the White House with a massive win on Wednesday, as millions of Americans set aside concerns about his criminal charges and divisive rhetoric to back a leader who could push the boundaries of presidential power if he fulfils his campaign pledges.

The 78-year-old won Tuesday’s election after a heated campaign, marked by two assassination attempts and Kamala Harris’s late entry after US President Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal.

Trump’s return to the White House means he would want to assemble an administration entirely different from the one that served under Biden. His team has promised that this second term will not look much like the first administration he formed after his 2016 victory.

Now, the president-elect has a 75-day transition period to assemble his team ahead of Inauguration Day on January 20. A key priority will be filling around 4,000 government positions with political appointees, individuals selected specifically by Trump’s team for their roles.

These appointees will range from the Secretary of State and other Cabinet leaders to part-time members on boards and commissions. About 1,200 of these appointments will require Senate approval, a process likely to be smoother now that the Senate has shifted to Republican control.

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Here’s what to expect from Trump’s transition:

What will Trump’s transition period look like?

Although the new administration will experience a complete revamp, Trump has a clear vision for what he wants to achieve. After building an administration in his first term, he now has concrete plans for what he would change this time around.

Notably, he has already begun suggesting potential appointees.

At his victory celebration on Wednesday, Trump announced that former presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert Kennedy Jr would lead a health initiative to “make America healthy again.”

He also hinted at appointing Elon Musk, an outspoken campaign supporter, as a “cost-cutting” secretary, with the Tesla CEO himself suggesting he could save trillions in government spending.

However, the transition is not just about filling jobs. Presidents-elect typically start receiving intelligence briefings during this period.

In 2008, President George W Bush personally briefed President-elect Barack Obama on covert US operations. Similarly, in 2016, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, met Michael Flynn, her incoming counterpart. However, in 2020, Trump’s legal disputes over the election results delayed Biden’s transition, with briefings starting only on November 30.

Who is helping Trump in the transition process?

Trump’s transition team is largely made up of close allies and family members, including Kennedy Jr, former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, and the president-elect’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump.

Transition co-chairs are Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who led the Small Business Administration under Trump.

Lutnick stated that this transition is “about as different as possible” from Trump’s first, which was led by Chris Christie, whom Trump dismissed before eventually handing over to then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

In his first administration, Trump’s Cabinet included some traditional Republicans and business figures who later disappointed or publicly broke with him. This time, he has decided to select individuals who value loyalty, aligning with his ideological stance and bombastic professional style.

Unlike Kamala Harris’s team, Trump’s campaign did not sign any pre-Election Day transition agreements with the General Services Administration, which manages government logistics. Missing these early deadlines means Trump has yet to secure arrangements like office space, tech support, and agency access for his team.

What are the new transition rules?

In 2020, Trump’s unsupported claims of widespread voter fraud delayed the handover from his administration to Biden’s by several weeks.

Trump’s appointed head of the General Services Administration (GSA), Emily Murphy, specified that she had no legal standing to determine a winner in the presidential race because Trump was still challenging the results in court. This delay prevented Biden’s team from accessing crucial funding and resources needed to begin the transition.

Only after Trump’s legal attempts to contest the election failed did Murphy agree to consider Biden as the president-elect, allowing the transition to proceed. Trump later confirmed on social media that his administration would begin cooperating.

In response to such delays, the Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 was introduced. Under the new law, the transition must now begin within five days of the election, regardless of any disputes over the outcome. This change removes the need for the GSA to make a formal “ascertainment” of the winner before releasing transition resources.

The GSA’s updated guidelines confirm that support services for the transition will begin under this law, helping prevent lengthy delays.

The impact of delayed transitions became particularly clear after the 2000 election, where the contested results between George W Bush and Al Gore took five weeks to resolve in the Supreme Court.

With half the usual transition period, Bush faced challenges managing the transition from the Clinton administration. That ultimately led to concerns about national security gaps that may have contributed to the US being underprepared for the September 11 attacks the following year.

With inputs from AP

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