Connect the Dots 101

Forget the peaceful transition of power.

Donald J. Trump has so far opted out of the official planning for a government handover, a move that allows him to avoid disclosing his donors to his transition effort….

Mr. Trump’s team has missed two key deadlines to sign agreements with the administration that are set by federal law and has also failed to sign an ethics plan that is required to jump-start the process of planning for a new administration. Mr. Trump’s representatives… have [also] skipped the opportunity to receive national security briefings…

His refusal to sign the documents allows him to circumvent fund-raising rules that put limits on private contributions to the transition effort, as well as ethics rules meant to avoid possible conflicts of interest for the incoming administration…

After the 2016 election, Mr. Trump’s team disclosed $6.5 million in outside contributions to support its transition. Four years later, the Biden transition revealed that it had raised $22.1 million from private donors.

[In 2020, Trump’s] General Services Administration — which oversees much of the process — followed President Trump’s lead in refusing to recognize his defeat. For nearly three weeks, his administration froze money meant for the winning candidate and impeded communications between the Biden transition team and the federal agencies.