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Not surprisingly, their approaches are as different as their campaigns.
Already Harris’s lean transition team has set up shop in federal government offices, working with the US General Services Administration, and is building out its infrastructure with a taxpayer-funded budget, meaning the team has agreed to $5,000 limits on individual private donations. It is led by the same official, former Ambassador Yohannes Abraham, who ran Joe Biden’s transition after the 2020 election.
Trump has steered clear of any government funding or office space so far, so distrustful are his allies of career civil servants and the Biden administration. That frees him to accept unlimited private donations. Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Officer Howard Lutnick is running personnel while Linda McMahon, Trump’s former head of the Small Business Administration, is supervising the policy operation.
Trump Team Aims for Less Chaos
The Trump transition team is far more organized than in 2016, according to three people familiar with it. One Trump adviser says the team is trying to prepare because no one wants to repeat the early, chaotic days of the 2017 White House.
McMahon and her staff are drafting a series of executive orders Trump could issue on immigration, trade, energy and other areas, as well as strategizing on how to pass another sweeping tax bill next year, according to three people briefed on the efforts. Lutnick has been meeting with members of Congress, donors, business executives, conservative leaders and former Trump administration officials to compile names for jobs begin to vet them.The America First Policy Institute, led by former top Trump aide Brooke Rollins, has worked for four years drafting policy proposals Trump could quickly deploy if he wins, including plans for agencies to carry out in the first 100 days, according to a person involved in the effort.Former US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his allies also are creating plans for tariffs involving China and the European Union as well other trade issues.
To be clear, Trump’s and Harris’ own attentions are elsewhere. The former president has told allies and advisers he considers it bad luck to talk about what might happen if he wins. At the same time, the Harris team has been standing up a presidential campaign on the fly since she formally replaced Biden on the ticket in August.
Transition teams typically have to fill about 4,000 jobs throughout the White House and federal agencies.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jockeying for Jobs
Former Trump administration officials have been jockeying for jobs since the Republican National Convention, where Trump allies set up shop at Milwaukee bars and restaurants near the convention center, divvying up the jobs in a Trump 2.0 universe.
Lutnick’s lists now include thousands of names, with notes on who recommended them. Trump family members, including his sons Don Jr. and Eric, gave names as did running mate JD Vance. Those associated with the Heritage Foundation or anyone involved in the foundation’s disavowed Project 2025 need not apply, people familiar with the effort said.
Even the best-laid plans do not always work out in Trump world. In 2016, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his close associates spent months carefully assembling lists of people and policy only to see Steve Bannon throw the binders in the trash shortly after Trump won.
The team essentially started from scratch, with loyalists interviewing people ad hoc, passing out jobs based on perceived loyalty, or if someone looked the part. Privately, the Trump 2024 transition operation is aware the same pattern could recur.
Trump allies say they’re trying to fill the government with as many private-sector people as possible, but surround business executives with former White House aides, who can teach them about the government, according to two people briefed on the transition.
The plum jobs are secretaries of Treasury and State and are usually the first choices, to give markets and foreign allies a sense of stability. The Treasury list includes Lutnick himself, donor and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, Lighthizer, former Soros money manager Scott Bessent and Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a former Carlyle Group Inc. executive.
Harris Team Begins Vetting
The Harris transition team is focused on setting up a vetting operation so it can quickly compile names for cabinet positions and make plans to implement her policy promises.
All of the policy proposals are still being run out of the campaign by a handful of longtime aides such as Ike Irby who has worked for Harris since she was in the Senate. Aiding the transition effort is Josh Hsu, the former counsel to the vice president, and Dana Remus, Biden’s former White House counsel who is serving as an adviser.
“There is no transition without a successful campaign and that is the top priority right now,” said Adam Hodge, a spokesperson for the Harris transition. “The transition is focused on setting up the infrastructure necessary to be ready for the post-election period.”