The Trump campaign is ignoring the president's transition deadlines

American presidents are The legislation was inaugurated in January, but the process of coordinating the changing of the guard between an outgoing and incoming administration begins weeks before Americans cast their votes in November. Nothing about this election cycle has been normal, but Donald Trump is breaking another campaign expectation by refusing to take part in preparations for the presidential transition.

According to a Wednesday report from The New York Times, The former president missed two key deadlines and failed to sign three documents required for the transition – two of which are required by federal law.

Trump continues to insist he will retake the White House in November and seek revenge on those he believes stole a second administration from him in 2020. So why is he letting the presidential transition process stop him? That's probably because signing the required documents would bind him to financial and ethical guidelines that he would prefer to avoid.

According to the Just, Trump's campaign did not sign a General Services Administration agreement by the September 1 deadline – an agreement that would give the campaign access to jobs, technical assistance and federal funds to support the transition. If approved, the campaign would be required to disclose private donations to its transition fund and set a $5,000 cap on individual donations. Without the voluntary disclosure agreement, the money raised to finance Trump's transition will essentially be thrown into an oversight black hole because the Federal Election Commission will not oversee the transition funds.

The Trump campaign missed another deadline last week and failed to sign White House paperwork that would allow Trump aides to obtain national security briefings and classified documents before the election. This second agreement can only go into effect if the Trump campaign also signs an ethics plan to mitigate conflicts of interest when hiring new staff, which it has so far refused to do.

According to the Just, The Trump campaign's transition team has had its staff sign their own ethics documents, but the documents contain far looser requirements for former lobbyists and representatives of foreign governments than the White House.

On Thursday, a report from CNN confirmed that Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has signed the General Services Agreement and White House Ethics Plan.

An administration official who served under both Biden and former President Barack Obama told CNN that the current transition process is similar to the Trump campaign's refusal to work with Obama's staff during the 2016 transition.

“We waited for the calls (from the Trump team), for people to show up, and they never did. They never accepted our memos,” they said of Trump’s first term, adding that the former president’s current team “has shown no signs of wanting to use anything we provide them.”