Experts sound alarm on Trump’s 'dark money' transition team

24 November 2024

Donald Trump has been quick to announce his Cabinet nominations over the last two weeks, but the president-elect has been slow to reveal the "names of the donors who are funding his transition effort," according to a Sunday New York Times report.

The Times reports:

The current Trump transition, like its predecessors, is set up as a 'dark money' nonprofit. Those groups typically do not have to disclose their donors, even to the Internal Revenue Service. But unlike Mr. Trump’s team this year, earlier transitions accepted financial support from the General Services Administration, which oversees much of the transition process. In exchange for that federal money, they agreed to conditions that other dark-money nonprofits do not have to follow, like capping individual contributions at $5,000 and disclosing the names of their donors.

Trump's refusal to sign "an agreement with the [President Joe] Biden administration that imposes strict limits on that fund-raising in exchange for up to $7.2 million in federal funds earmarked for the transition," makes him "the first president-elect to sidestep the restrictions," the report notes.

This lack of transparency from the incoming president is "provoking alarm among ethics experts."

Although Trump Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — both of whom helm the MAGA transition team — claim the president-elect will sign the agreements, "Trump’s transition team, formally known as Trump Vance 2025 Transition Inc., has revealed nothing about how much money it hopes to raise, who has contributed to the fund or how it is spending the money," the Times reports.

“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 public policy Professor Heath Brown. "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' full report is available here.

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