It hasn’t even been a week since Donald Trump won his sweeping re-election victory, and the press, including CNN, and Democrats are already teaming up to accuse him of breaking the law. On Monday, the left-wing network put out a report the president-elect had not yet signed ethics agreements regarding the transition, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) quickly chimed in claiming that illegality was afoot.
Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law.
I would know because I wrote the law.
Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement.
This is what illegal corruption looks like. https://t.co/JJjJ59DgB5
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 11, 2024
The chances that Warren actually “wrote the law” in question here are about zero. Very few, if any, modern-day senators sit down at their desks and write laws. Instead, they are usually put together by an unholy alliance of staffers and lobbyists. But what’s underneath the hood here? That’s what CNN attempted to get into with its report, which is a preview of the hysteria to come.
President-elect Donald Trump has not yet submitted a series of transition agreements with the Biden administration, in part because of concerns over the mandatory ethics pledge vowing to avoid conflicts of interest once sworn in to office, CNN has learned.
As president, Trump repeatedly came under fire from ethics groups for potential conflicts of interest relating to his businesses and brands. Both Trump’s and his family’s foreign business ties have also come under intense scrutiny throughout his time in office and on the campaign trail.
There’s a bit more to this, and it’s not immediately apparent to me that any laws are being broken by not signing these agreements, but it’s that second paragraph I want to stop can comment on.
Let me be clear: No one cares.
This isn’t 2017 anymore. The days of the press making hay by quoting “ethics groups” crying that Trump’s business enterprise continues to make money are over. Voters went to the polls last Tuesday and handed Democrats a sweeping defeat because they are sick of the nation’s elites obsessing over things that don’t matter while normal people can’t afford groceries. No one cares about “Trump’s and his family’s foreign business ties.” They certainly don’t care about the left making more accusations of criminality after the last two years of lawfare and assassination attempts.
Trump and his transition team are already behind in accessing key transition briefings from the Biden administration, as they have failed to sign a pair of agreements to unlock critical information before taking over the federal government in 72 days.
The holdup revolves in part around the mandatory agreement over ethics issues.
A source familiar with the process acknowledged that details are still being worked out with the Biden administration regarding the ethics agreement, which is required by law under the Presidential Transition Act and which applies to all members of the transition team.
They are behind in what way exactly? Because CNN says so? Whenever the press posits a premise, one should always take a moment to ask whether it should even be accepted or not. Frankly, I’m not seeing much evidence that these “briefings” from the Biden administration are incredibly important at this moment, especially given Trump is still laying out who will actually head these various agencies.
Which brings me to what this is really about. Does anyone really believe that Elizabeth Warren and CNN care about whether Donald Trump’s transition team is currently getting classified briefings a few days after the election? Of course, they don’t. This is about the bureaucratic class being ignored.
Trump’s team could have begun receiving briefings from federal agencies as early as Thursday had it signed the agreements, according to Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. Boyd estimated that “hundreds” of Trump officials involved in the transition will need background checks to receive classified briefings.
Max Stier, the Partnership for Public Service’s president and CEO, warned of “severe” consequences if the Trump transition continues to fail to engage with President Joe Biden’s team.
“Is it possible just to walk past all this? And the answer is that it is possible — and we’re watching it happen. But the consequences are severe. It would not be possible to be ready to govern on Day 1 without engaging” in interactions with agencies about the state of play within the federal government and the world writ large, Stier said.
Transition, he added, is a “point of maximum vulnerability” for US security.
This is the story we always get. “Oh no, the bureaucratic class isn’t getting to dictate the process! The country is going to collapse!” I’m not joking. That’s the impression the article goes on to give, including quoting Rep. Jamie Raskin asserting that the “transfer of power could be threatened.” Who knew that the constitutionally mandated transfer of power is at the mercy of some “ethics agreement” and whether the deep state gets to “brief” the incoming administration? Who knew?
We all know what the latter actually means. The bureaucratic state wants to assert influence, and without these briefings and these agreements, they are effectively iced out for the time being. That’s not to say the Trump transition won’t eventually sign them, but it’s not a priority, and it shouldn’t be. As to the hand-wringing about illegality, it’s nonsense. Let them scream. It makes all this more enjoyable.
