The latest episode of The President’s Inbox is live! This week, I sat down with Stephen Hadley to discuss the presidential transition process and the challenges that all incoming presidents face in staffing up their administrations. Steve knows the transition challenge firsthand, having served multiple stints in the U.S. government, including as national security advisor to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009. In that role, Steve oversaw the foreign policy transition between the Bush administration and the administration of President Barack Obama. Steve recently edited the book Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama, which provides and assesses the memos that the outgoing Bush team prepared for the incoming Obama team.

I had five takeaways from our conversation:

1) The transition process is governed more by norms than by rules. The United States has only one president at a time. That said, the world often looks past the lame-duck to see what the incoming president wants. The potential for confusion and mistakes is real. Sitting presidents can bristle at successors overstepping their bounds. Incoming presidents can grouse about predecessors trying to tie their hands. Transitions go best when the outgoing and incoming teams cooperate. That can be easier said than done.

2) The White House and the senior offices across the U.S. government empty out on Inauguration Day. Unlike most every other government in the world, the senior leadership of each administration exits along with the outgoing president. The West Wing will be mostly empty on January 20. The same is true of the senior leadership of all the executive branch agencies, including the State Department and the Department of Defense. Career civil servants hold down critical positions until confirmed officials and political appointees arrive.  

3) Administrations are almost always short-handed and dependent on White House staff for their first several months on the job. The Senate may confirm a few cabinet nominees before Inauguration Day. But most confirmations come later; it can be months before under secretaries and assistant secretaries are confirmed. Only then can they begin working with their staffs and with each other.

4) Even with a good transition process, some institutional memory and policymaking history will be lost. All the papers of the outgoing administration go to the National Archives when an administration ends. With luck, the incoming team gets copies of critical documents and studies them. But not every conversation, understanding, or assumption the outgoing team had is written down. That’s why the new team is well-advised to maintain good relations with the old team. They may need them. It’s hard to chart a new course if you are uncertain about what the old course was.

5) The transition after Election Day and the early months of a new administration are a fraught time. The world does not go on hold while one administration hands its foreign policy off to a new team, or while a new administration gets its sea legs. It’s a dangerous world. Events can test a lame duck and a new president in ways they would prefer to avoid. 

Steve provided many more insights during our conversation into the challenges that any new president—and their team—face in getting ready to assume the responsibilities of office. Please do give the episode a listen.

Oscar Berry assisted in the preparation of this post.