The identities of private donors funding Donald Trump’s presidential transition are being kept secret in a break with precedent that is obscuring which groups, businesses or wealthy individuals are helping to launch his second presidency.
The president-elect has been able to maintain secrecy over his financial backers by neglecting to sign an agreement with the outgoing Biden administration that would put strict limits on private funding in exchange for up to $7.2m in federal funding for his transition effort.
The agreement requires an incoming president to disclose the names of private donors and caps their donations at $5,000.
Sidestepping it means Trump can raise unlimited amounts of cash from rich backers to finance his return to the White House while concealing what they are being promised in return.
He is the first incoming president not to sign the federal transition funding agreement, which is dictated by the Presidential Transition Act.
Transition funds are typically raised to pay for staff, office space and travel needed to put together an administration.
Trump’s decision to avoid the standard procedure has alarmed ethics experts, who warn that it enables wealthy individuals to influence the makeup of a new administration without their names or potential conflicts of interest being disclosed.
It also means the president-elect can accept unlimited donations from foreign donors, who – in contrast to rules prohibiting foreigners from contributing to election campaigns – are legally allowed to donate to transitions.
“When the money isn’t disclosed, it’s not clear how much everybody is giving, who is giving it and what they are getting in return for their donations,” said Heath Brown, a professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, to the New York Times.
“It’s an area where the vast majority of Americans would agree that they want to know who is paying that bill.”
The New York Times previously reported that Trump had missed a 1 October deadline to submit a legally required ethics pledge agreeing to avoid conflicts of interest while in office.
His campaign has also avoided signing memorandums of understanding with the General Services Administration, allowing it to provide transition facilities.
The refusal to sign the agreements stands in contrast to Trump’s actions in the run up to his 2016 election victory, when his campaign closely followed the established transition process.
The alternative path followed this time comes against a backdrop of mistrust the president-elect has voiced in many public institutions, including the FBI, which has been excluded from carrying out the standard background checks on Trump’s nominees.
Max Stier, the president of the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington-based non-profit group, said Trump’s motives in avoiding the standard transition process went beyond lack of trust.
“The [reason] that I have seen, reported on consistently, is this notion of the requirement to limit donations to $5,000 and be transparent about where that money comes from,” he said.
Stier added: “There is a strong public interest in knowing who is funding the transition process and limiting contributions, so that no single individual is able to put too strong a thumb on the scale. Because that transition process is so closely connected to the ultimate governance process, even though it is still on the private sector side.”
