Here’s One More Way Trump Is Putting America’s Security at Risk

With just weeks to go in this election, we are on the brink of another transfer of power, with a near 50/50 chance that Donald Trump will again be preparing to govern. Ominous signs right now suggest Trump's plan for this transition is chaotic and risky, flouting rules established to keep the country safe and secure.

What is most worrisome about the Trump planning, though, is the dangerous game of chicken he is playing with the outgoing Biden White House. We recently learned that the Trump transition team has not yet signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the General Services Administration or the White House, missing deadlines established to ensure careful planning and cooperation occurs before and after the election (the Harris-Walz transition team signed its MOU in mid-September).

In theory, this means the Trump transition team — should he win in November — will not receive the assistance the government offers to major party candidates, including millions of dollars in federal assistance, free office space and information technology, and access to federal experts. Any transition team choosing to opt out of these services is at best foolish. At worst, it's risking the safety and security of the country, and depriving the president-elect of the information needed to effectively govern on day one.

President Joe Biden , perhaps better than anyone, understands these risks.

He's been through three presidential transitions: two as a part of the incoming administration and one as the outgoing. He was there in January 2009 when the Bush White House informed the incoming Obama administration of intelligence about a potential foreign terrorist attack on the inauguration. He also was there in the fall of 2016 to witness the incoming Trump administration ignore the offers of help from the Obama administration, and again four years later for his own transition.

With days remaining before Biden was to be sworn into office, the team preparing for the inauguration faced a domestic crisis. Not only had the country just barely survived the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the outgoing Trump administration was still sowing disorder. Editor's picks

An ad-hoc group made up of many of key figures about to go into the White House, including Lisa Monaco, Jake Sullivan, and soon-to-be Secretary of State Antony Blinken found out the sitting administration seemed to be ignoring what had just happened at the Capitol. Trump officials were still approving what one person on the transition team called "crazy stuff," including permits to protest during the inauguration at the White House and around the Capitol grounds. The group immediately had extra fencing installed and arranged for the Washington Mall to be emptied out before Inauguration Day, precautions aimed to make sure a repeat of Jan. 6 didn't occur.

Biden and his advisers surely remember these trying times and understand the value of careful planning and bipartisan cooperation, as well as the dangers for the country of going it alone. The Trump transition team knows this, and, I suspect, is betting on Biden overriding the transition rules and forgiving the missing MOU.

While Biden's generosity might reassure those worried that an incoming Trump administration would be cut off from important intelligence about the threats to the country, such a situation would open a Pandora's Box of new threats.

For one, allowing Trump's transition to operate without an MOU means it will not be bound by strict limits on fundraising. Donations to the Harris-Walz transition team, for example, are capped at $5,000 and the names of donors must be made public. No MOU means anyone seeking influence with an incoming Trump administration could give unlimited amounts to the transition team while at the same time lobbying the transition team on key appointments while making controversial policy demands. Related

Even with the limits in place, the 2016 Trump transition raised $6.5 million from private donors, including the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, hedge funders like Ken Griffin and Paul Singer, and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. WWE executive Linda McMahon gave the maximum amount in 2016 before being appointed administrator of the Small Business Administration. She's now overseeing the Trump transition team. Another Trump transition without those limits would likely break fundraising records, and the public wouldn't know a thing about who'd paid the bills.

Equally worrisome is what this failure to sign the MOU says about the willingness of the Trump transition team to actually cooperate with the outgoing administration. Trump's disdain for the permanent officials running the government has only intensified since he left office, suggesting even if he was given an exemption from the transition rules, he still wouldn't turn to the Biden administration for help.

This wouldn't be surprising for anyone involved in the last chaotic transition. For months after the 2020 election, there was just spotty cooperation between the incoming Biden transition and outgoing Trump administration. Some Trump officials met with the Biden-Harris team, sharing information about the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues faced by federal agencies. For others, they could barely be bothered to show up to a meeting, disregarding decades of bipartisan tradition that has ensured a seamless transfer of power.

Much of the problem in each of the last three transitions that Trump has been a part of is the very Trumpian disregard for the institutions and people of government, especially around intelligence. And within Trump's inner circle, nobody is as distrusting as Kash Patel.

It was Patel, installed as the acting chief of staff at the Department of Defense shortly after the 2020 election, who signaled that cooperation with the Biden-Harris transition team was forbidden.

As I wrote about in my book on the 2020-21 transition (excerpted by Rolling Stone in June), many Trump defense and intelligence appointees listened to Patel's demand. One Trump intelligence official refused to share information at a face-to-face meeting with the Biden-Harris team, falsely claiming: "You guys are not legitimate, so I'm not sharing this information."

The consequence of this refusal is hard to quantify; no attacks on the country happened immediately after the Biden administration took over. Nevertheless, the person I interviewed explained that members of the transition team "were unable to provide a complete picture of the current... intel threat environment," and then concluded, "had there been something similar [to 9/11], we wouldn't have had the information."

Just as Trump hasn't gone away, Patel is still around, too. The New York Times reported that he is under consideration for a spot on the National Security Council or possibly even the director of the CIA, should Trump win. Trending

All attention is rightly now on the campaign, but with Patel and other MAGA loyalists in the mix, the signs are becoming clear that some of the worst elements of past presidential transitions may occur again. A transition in 2024 marked by unchecked corporate influence, distrust of government officials, and little cooperation with the outgoing Biden administration puts the safety and security of the country at great risk.

This game of chicken is one the country will badly lose.