Transition off to a slow start
Key Trump adviser out as team remains mum ahead of handoff
An insular group of loyalists and family members are at the helm giving the public little information. A top establishment figure abruptly departed the transition team. And officials from across the federal government say they have heard nothing from the people who are supposed to take their place two months from now.
By Tuesday, a week after his election, Trump's team had yet to discuss even basic elements of the government handoff with key players at the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, in large part because of a delay in signing the paperwork dictating the nuts and bolts of the process.
“We are standing by ready to assist,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
“We stand ready,” said State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau.
The Trump campaign kept mum throughout the day as confidants and family members streamed in and out of Trump Tower in New York City.
Leaks about internal squabbles and personnel moves, many involving campaign allies competing for top posts, were left to fill the information void.
“No. No,” Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a Trump adviser, said when asked about rumors of infighting on the team. “It's all been good.”
But one of Trump's most respected links to the Republican foreign policy community, Mike Rogers,?announced he was leaving the transition team. Rogers, a former chairman of the House intelligence committee, had been a bridge between Trump and skeptics in his party.
Rogers had been a holdover from the transition team assembled by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was replaced last week by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the vice president-elect.
A person close to Rogers called his departure part of an effort to distance the team from Christie.
“Anyone close to Chris Christie got dumped,” said the Rogers ally. “All the level-headed people are stepping aside.”
Another potential bridge was also cut off when Eliot Cohen, a conservative critic of Trump, portrayed himself as walking away from an attempt at reconciliation. Cohen, a supporter of the war in Iraq who served in former President George W. Bush's State Department, had organized a letter signed by dozens of former officials denouncing Trump during the campaign.
“After exchange (with) Trump transition team, changed my recommendation,” Cohen tweeted. “Stay away. They're angry, arrogant, screaming ‘you LOST!' Will be ugly.”
Trump had insisted during the campaign, contrary to evidence, that he had always opposed the Iraq War.
Another potential player in the administration, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, also took himself out of the running for an administration job, according to Terry Giles, a former finance chairman during Carson's presidential campaign.
Christie's departure was also responsible for the delay in setting up meetings between Trump's team and the leaders of federal government agencies. Christie had signed an agreement with the Obama administration prior to Election Day that set parameters for interactions between White House officials and designated representatives of the president-elect's team.
That agreement, which is required by federal law and sets the conditions for access to documents, staff and facilities of federal agencies, no longer applied once Christie was removed from his position. The White House said it received a new agreement signed by Pence late Tuesday.
“The government is ready for the Trump folks and the Trump folks need to get moving,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that focuses on good governance.
Stier said Trump seems to be figuring out how to move from campaigning to governing, one of the stiffest challenges that any president-elect faces. The task is enormous, he noted: hiring 4,000 people, implementing policy, learning enough to avoid national security risks, preparing a budget a month after inauguration and preparing for “things you can't expect — the asteroids that come in.”
Those most affected by Trump's agenda are also anxious about the lack of clarity. Hospital groups, health insurers, consumer advocates and others have been scrambling since the election to learn how the Trump administration and it allies on Capitol Hill will fulfill their pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
House Speaker Paul Ryan tried to reassure the public, saying that he was in touch with Trump almost daily.
“We're going to do everything we can to help make him be as successful as he's going to be,” Ryan said.
Trump's team tapped Rep. Chris Collins of New York — the first in the House to support him — as a liaison to House Republicans, and sent an aide to Tuesday's meeting of the House GOP as a legislative emissary.
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