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What happens during Donald Trump's presidential transition process, 2024-2025

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Trump Administration
(second term)
Donald Trump • J.D. Vance
Administration: Donald Trump's Cabinet • Confirmation process for Cabinet nominees • Confirmation votes by senator • Executive orders and actions • Key legislation • Vetoes • White House staff • Ambassadors • Special envoys • Multistate lawsuits • Supreme Court emergency orders
Transition: Transition • What happens during a presidential transition? • Certification of electoral votes • 2024 presidential election
First term: Transition • Confirmation process for Cabinet nominees • Cabinet • Administration

This page was last updated on April 30, 2025, the hundredth day of Donald Trump's (R) second presidential term. Click here to read more about the second Trump administration.

President Donald Trump (R) assumed office on January 20 and the 119th Congress was sworn in on January 3, 2025. Leading up to inauguration day, Trump and his team prepared for the transition from the Biden administration, a process that included launching agency review teams, selecting senior White House staff, identifying nominees for the Cabinet and other key Senate-confirmed positions, training the advisors who will guide nominees through the confirmation process, and developing policy agenda and implementation plans.[1]

Ballotpedia Answers: What happens during Trump’s presidential transition process?

This page provides answers to some frequently asked questions about the presidential transition and how it works. Click here for an overview of Trump's presidential transition team and news related to the transition of power between the Biden administration and the second Trump administration.

Click on the links below to jump to the various sections on this page:

When does the presidential transition process start?

The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 established legal requirements and milestones for the presidential transition process.[2] The law has been amended several times since it was first passed. Congress amended the law several times since then, including, according to Politico, in 2010 and 2015. The Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 required the General Services Administration to provide major-party presidential candidates and minor-party principal contenders with office space, equipment, and administrative support within three business days of the party's formal nomination. The 2015 Presidential Transitions Improvements Act created two panels for the White House and for federal agencies to help coordinate the presidential transfer of power.[3]

According to the Center for Presidential Transition, the transition process begins about a year before the general election and follows the following milestones:[2]

“

November 2023 (12 months before)

  • The General Services Administration develops a transition directory with information on federal agencies​.
  • The GSA produces a report summarizing modern transition activities and relevant resources.

May 2024 (6 months before)

  • The president establishes the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which is chaired by the president’s chief of staff and composed largely of senior White House officials. The council provides overall oversight and guidance to agencies and the federal transition coordinator.
  • Each agency designates a senior career employee to oversee transition activities. That person is the agency transition director and serves on the Agency Transition Directors Council.
  • The Agency Transition Directors Council begins to meet regularly​.
  • The General Services Administration’s federal transition coordinator reports to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on transition preparations.

August – November 2024 (After nominating conventions through presidential election)​

  • The General Services Administration begins providing preelection office space and support to the major candidates on one of the first three business days following the last major party nominating convention, scheduled to end on Aug. 22, 2024.
  • Three months before the election, the federal transition coordinator reports to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on transition preparations.
  • No later than Sept. 1, the GSA enters memorandums of understanding with eligible candidates regarding support services.
  • No later than Sept. 15, heads of agencies ensure succession plans are in place for noncareer positions.
  • No later than Oct. 1, the GSA negotiates memorandums of understanding with transition teams, including agreement by transition teams to implement and make public their ethics plans.
  • No later than Nov. 1, the Agency Transition Directors Council ensures that transition briefing materials are prepared.

November 2024 (Post-election while results are unclear)​

  • Pre-election support continues for five days unless all but one candidate concedes
  • If a “sole apparent successful candidate” is not determined within five days of the election, post-election transition assistance is provided on an equitable basis to any remaining “apparent successful candidates” until there is one apparent successful candidate

Post-election (once there is clarity on the outcome)​

  • On the day following a concession of all but one eligible candidate, or the determination of a sole apparent successful candidate, GSA continues to provide office space and support services to the President-elect and Vice President-elect, with support continuing up to 60 days after inauguration
  • A classified summary regarding national security is given to the president-elect as soon as possible after the election
  • Training and orientation activities commence for prospective presidential appointees (typically funded by Congress for the fiscal year in which the transition falls)
  • 30 days before the expiration of the term, GSA begins support to outgoing president and vice president, with support continuing for seven months total

[4]

”
—Center for Presidential Transition[2]

When does the new administration take office? How long do confirmations take?

See also: Confirmation process for Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, 2025

President Donald Trump (R) assumed office on January 20 and the 119th Congress was sworn in on January 3, 2025.

For cabinet positions, Article II, section 2 of the Constitution states the President "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for."

According to the Center for Presidential Transition, there are about 1,300 political appointee positions that require Senate confirmation.[5] This process can begin before a new president's inauguration. Four of President Joe Biden's (D) first 15 Cabinet nominations had hearings before his inauguration and six were confirmed during his first month in office.[5] Twelve of Trump's nominees had hearings before his inauguration in Januaury 2017 and nine were confirmed during his first month in office.[5]


According to the center, the length of the Senate confirmation process has increased since President Ronald Reagan's administration, with confirmations during Biden's administration taking an average of about 192 days from when submitted to the Senate. During Reagan's administration, the average confirmation took 69 days.[5]

How often are nominations withdrawn or rejected?

See also: Appointment confirmation process

The confirmation process includes several rounds of investigation and review, beginning with the submission of a personal financial disclosure report and a background check. The nominee is then evaluated in a committee hearing, which allows for a close examination of the nominee and his or her views on public policy. Supporters and opponents of the nominee may also testify.[6]

Once committee hearings are closed, most committees have a set amount of time before a vote is taken on whether the nominee is reported to the Senate favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation. The nomination will then go to the Senate floor for consideration. Once the nomination is considered by the Senate, unlimited debate is allowed until a majority of the Senate votes to invoke cloture and close debate. Following a vote of cloture, the Senate conducts a simple majority vote on whether to confirm, reject, or take no action on the nomination.[7]

According to the Center for Presidential Transition, "most unsuccessful nominees are withdrawn prior to a Senate vote when it becomes apparent there is not enough support for confirmation. Administrations typically anticipate a candidate cannot win in the Senate and withdraw the nomination before a failed vote takes place. In fact, only one Cabinet nominee has been rejected in a Senate floor vote in the last 60 years – George H. W. Bush’s nominee for secretary of Defense, John Tower, in 1989."[2]

Donald Trump (D) announced U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his nominee for U.S. attorney general on November 13, 2024. About a week later, on November 21, Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration. Gaetz' eight-day nomination tied with George W. Bush's (R) nomination of Bernie Kerik's for the third shortest withdrawn nomination in United States history.[8]

Gaetz's withdrawal from consideration as U.S. attorney general marked the seventh presidential transition in a row where a president had at least one nominee withdrawn or rejected by the U.S. Senate before the end of their second month in office. Joe Biden (D) withdrew one nominee, Neera Tanden for administrator of the Office of Management and Budget. Tanden's nomination was announced on November 30, 2020, and withdrawn on March 2, 2021, after Senate committee hearings.[9][10] George H.W. Bush (R), Bill Clinton (D), George W. Bush (R), and Trump, during his first term, each also had one nomination withdrawn or rejected before the end of their second month in office, while Barack Obama (D) had three in this timeframe.

Of the seven nominations withdrawn towards the start of a presidential transition since 2001, Gaetz's withdrawal from consideration was the fourth nomination withdrawn before the Senate officially received the nomination.[2]

What are recess appointments?

See also: Recess appointment

Background on recess appointments

A recess appointment is a temporary appointment made by the President of the United States to fill a vacant federal position while the United States Senate is in recess.

Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires the president to seek the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate when appointing individuals to serve as federal judges, ambassadors, Cabinet secretaries, and other executive branch positions. Excluding federal judges, there are over 1,300 executive branch positions that require Senate confirmation.[11] However, the constitution also gives the president the power to, "fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session."

The United States Supreme Court ruled in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning Company (2014) that a president can make recess appointments during the recesses between formal Senate sessions (inter-session) and recesses that take place during formal Senate sessions (intra-session). The court also ruled that a president can only make recess appointments during a Senate recess that is at least ten days in length, and that pro forma sessions, which are sessions where no business is expected to be conducted, qualify as in-session for the purposes of determining whether the chamber is in recess.[12] Article I, Section 5 of the U.S Constitution requires both the House and Senate must consent to adjourn in order for either chamber to hold a recess lasting more than three days.

Recess appointments are temporary, and last through the end of the Senate's next session unless the Senate votes to confirm the official and make the appointment permanent. So, for example, if a president makes an inter-session recess appointment, it would last about a year through the end of the upcoming session. If a president makes an intra-session recess appointment, it would last through the rest of the current session and through the end of the next session, meaning it could last as long as about two years.[13]

Ronald Reagan (R) made the most (240) recess appointments among presidents serving from 1981 to 2024, according to the Congressional Research Service.[14][13] During this time period, Donald Trump (R) and Joe Biden (D) made no recess appointments because the Senate was never in recess for ten consecutive days during either Trump's first term or Biden's term in office. The Senate used pro forma sessions to stay constantly in session.[15]

The role of recess appointments in Trump's presidential transition

In a Truth Social post on November 10, 2024, Trump said he wanted Republican Senate leaders to allow him to use recess appointments to fill positions without waiting for Senate confirmation.[16] In the post, Trump said that without recess appointments, "we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again."[16]

According to The Associated Press' Stephen Groves, allowing these recess appointments "would be a significant shift in power away from the Senate."[17] Groves also wrote, "During the nation’s early history, Congress would take months-long breaks from Washington, and presidents could use recess appointments to avoid having an important job go unfilled. But more recently, the process of recess appointments has been featured in partisan fights with the president."[17]

In an opinion article published in Time Sen. Chris Coons (D) argued against the use of recess appointments: "Using the recess appointments loophole to confirm them instead makes a mockery of our constitutional role and will further damage the bipartisan relationships in Congress that remain necessary to pass most legislation in a closely-divided Senate. If that high-minded argument doesn’t work, however, consider this: if Republicans adjourn Congress so Trump can make recess appointments, Democrats will unfortunately be far more likely to do the same at the next opportunity."[18]

What role do executive orders play in the presidential transition?

According to the Congressional Research Service, a President’s first 100 days "has been a touchstone for evaluation of presidential effectiveness" since the start of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's (D) administration in 1933.[6] As a result, incoming and outgoing presidents may issue executive orders "to establish preferred policies closer to Inauguration Day than could be accomplished through laws or regulations. When the incoming and outgoing Presidents are members of different political parties, this perception may be especially strong."[6]

Incoming presidents may use the transition period to prepare executive orders. [6] Outgoing presidents, Hamline University political science professor David Schultz said in an interview with C-SPAN, may use the transition period "to try to issue a bunch of executive orders to try to cement in their legacy."[19]

Since FDR (D), 11 presidents have succeeded a member of the opposing party:

According to The American Presidency, Joe Biden (D) issued more executive orders and memorandums during his first 100 days than any president since FDR.[20]

The chart below shows the number of executive orders of the last four presidents during the first 100 days of their first term.

What happens to staff who are not appointed by the incoming president?

See also: Civil service

The leadership of the federal bureaucracy includes more than 7,000 appointees. Of those, about 3,700 are political appointees, and most others are members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) or career appointees.[21] Most political appointees step down when their appointing president leaves office.[21]

Political appointments generally fall into four categories:[21]

  1. Presidential appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate (PAS)
  2. Presidential appointments not requiring confirmation (PA positions)
  3. Noncareer SES appointments
  4. Schedule C appointments

The SES is a subset of the federal civil service that is made up of civilian government positions outside of the competitive service or the excepted service. Members of the SES are recruited for their leadership and managerial experience, rather than technical expertise, and are hired to serve in senior executive roles below top-level presidential appointees within federal administrative agencies.[22]

Career appointees typically remain in office across multiple administrations unless they are transferred to other positions.[21]

What would Trump's Schedule F proposal mean for federal employees and appointments?

Trump announced in his 2024 campaign agenda that a day-one priority would be to reissue Executive Order 13957, which created a new Schedule F in the excepted service for competitive service employees serving in policy-related roles.[23]

The order would have made it easier to remove those employees at-will because excepted service employees are not guaranteed certain workplace protections against removal and discrimination that are guaranteed to competitive service employees. Trump argued in the order that "agencies should be able to assess candidates without proceeding through complicated and elaborate competitive service processes," and that, "[a]gencies need the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions without facing extensive delays or litigation."[24]

Trump issued the executive order on October 21, 2020.[24] Before the order was implemented, Joe Biden (D) issued Executive Order 14003 on January 22, 2021, repealing Trump's Schedule F order, among others. Biden argued that E.O. 13967 "undermined the foundations of the civil service and its merit system principles, which were essential to the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883’s repudiation of the spoils system."[25]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a rule on April 9, 2024, affording federal employees in the competitive service the right to retain job protection and due process rights—unless voluntarily relinquished—in the event their position changes from the competitive service to the excepted service. The rule, which went into effect on May 9, 2024, could make it more difficult to implement Schedule F provisions.[26]

What role does the General Services Administration play in the presidential transition?

The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 authorized and outlined the U.S. General Services Administration role in the presidential transition process.[27]

According to the GSA's website, this role is to provide "support to eligible candidates, Inter-agency Transition teams, the Presidential Inauguration effort, and the outgoing President and Vice-President," when there is a change in administration.[28] The Presidential Transition Act also requires the GSA to provide Congress with reporting on the status of the presidential transition. Click here to see GSA's 2024 Presidential Transition Directory.

In 2022, Congress passed the Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022, under which the GSA is required to provide post-election transition services immediately after the election, following a concession. If a concession does not happen within five days of the election, the law requires GSA to provide services to all eligible candidates until there is one apparent successful candidate when Congressionally established factors are met.[28]

How much does the presidential transition process cost?

According to The Center for Presidential Transition, recent presidential transitions have cost more than $10 million.[2]

In 2021, CNN reported that Biden had raised $22.1 million from private donors for his transition and spent $24 million.[29] According to the Center, Biden's transition team received $6.3 million in federal funding while Trump's 2016 transition team raised more than $6.5 million from private donors and received about $6 million  in government funding. [2]

According to The Washington Post Barack Obama’s transition team spent $5.2 million in public dollars funds and $4 million in private donations, while George W. Bush’s (R) 2000 transition team spent $5 million in private funds and $4 million in public funds.[30]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Center for Presidential Transition, "2024 Transition Timeline," accessed November 7, 2024
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Center for Presidential Transition, "2024 Transition Timeline," December 16, 2024 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "cpt" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "cpt" defined multiple times with different content
  3. ↑ Politico Pro, "The Presidential Transition Roadmap: The Definitive Guide, accessed December 16, 2024
  4. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Center for Presidential Transition, "Senate Confirmations Slow to a Crawl," accessed December 3, 2024
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 CRS Report for Congress, "Senate Confirmation Process: An Overview," accessed July 24, 2013 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "crs" defined multiple times with different content
  7. ↑ Congressional Research Service, "Senate Consideration of Presidential Nominations: Committee and Floor Procedure," April 4, 2019
  8. ↑ Politico, "Matt Gaetz's short-lived 8 days," November 21, 2024
  9. ↑ Biden-Harris Transition, "President-elect Biden Announces Key Members of Economic Team," November 30, 2020
  10. ↑ CNN.com, "White House pulls Tanden nomination," March 2, 2021
  11. ↑ Partnership for Public Service, "Political Appointee Tracker," accessed November 15, 2024
  12. ↑ Supreme Court of the United States (via Findlaw), National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, et al., decided June 26, 2014
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Congressional Research Service, "Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions," March 11, 2015
  14. ↑ Congressional Research Service, "Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions," March 15, 2005
  15. ↑ Congress.gov, "Browse by Congress," accessed November 15, 2024
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Truthsocial,"Donald J. Trump," November 10, 2024
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Associated Press, "What are recess appointments and how could Trump use them to fill his Cabinet?" November 14, 2024
  18. ↑ Time, "Why Trump’s Talk of Recess Appointments Is Dangerous," December 9, 2024
  19. ↑ C-SPAN, "Video Clip: The Power of Lame Duck Presidents to Issue Pardons and Executive Orders," December 19, 2024
  20. ↑ The American Presidency Project, "Biden in Action: the First 100 Days," accessed December 19, 2024
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Congressional Research Service, "Presidential Transitions: Executive Branch Political Appointment Status," July 30, 2024
  22. ↑ Office of Personnel Management, "Guide To The Senior Executive Service," March 2017
  23. ↑ donaldjtrump.com, "Agenda47: President Trump's Plan to Dismantle the Deep State and Return Power to the American People," March 21, 2023
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Federal Register, "Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service," October 21, 2020
  25. ↑ The White House, "Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce," January 22, 2021
  26. ↑ Federal Register, "Upholding Civil Service Protections and Merit System Principles," April 9, 2024
  27. ↑ Govinfo.gov," Presidential Transition Act of 1963," accessed January 8, 2025
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 U.S. General Services Administration, "Our role in presidential transitions," accessed January 8, 2025
  29. ↑ CNN, "President Joe Biden raised more than $22 million to fund his White House transition," February 23, 2021
  30. ↑ The Washington Post, "Who’s helping pay for President-elect Trump’s transition effort? You are,," November 23, 2026
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