President-elect Donald Trump’s team submitted an ethics pledge, which enshrines the guidelines of conduct the members of his cabinet are obligated to follow throughout the transition period. However, his name did not appear in the provision, which left many by surprise. The bipartisan bill to boost transparency and make sure incoming presidents stick to an ethics plan was passed by Congress in 2020, and it was Trump who signed it into law.
However, after winning the White House for the second time, Trump appears to have excluded himself from adhering to the guidelines, CNN reported. The Republican leader missed two months of deadlines before finally signing off an agreement with US President Joe Biden to kick start the transition period this week.
However, the transition agreement turned out to be unusual since it did not appear to include the president-elect’s pledge to avoid conflicts of interest while in office. This was a major requirement under the Presidential Transition Act he signed into law four years earlier. It is pertinent to note that Trump’s team has already turned down federal funding and office space for his transition team. His staff will not take part in the official government checks and security checks as well.
Democrats call out the anomaly
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who co-wrote the Presidential Transition Act, raised concerns about the move. “This announcement fails to answer key questions about national security threats and FBI vetting of nominees, and increases concerns about corruption,” she said.
“There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition’s ethics agreement and the letter of the law. The reliance on private donors to fund the transition is nothing more than a ploy for well-connected Trump insiders to line their pockets while pretending to save taxpayers’ money,” she added.
Despite all the changes, Trump’s signing of the transition agreement with the Biden administration this week paved the way for his team to begin entering offices and receive briefings from the current staff about the day-to-day operations of hundreds of federal agencies. Warren’s criticism came after Trump’s team said that it is turning down federal support “consistent with President Trump’s commitment to save taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/world/united-states/trump-keeps-his-name-out-of-transition-ethics-pledge-breaching-a-law-he-signed-in-2020-13840290.html.
