The transition is not just about filling jobs. Most presidents-elect also receive daily or near-daily briefings during the transition.

In 2008, incumbent President George W. Bush personally briefed President-elect Barack Obama on US covert operations. As Trump prepared to take office in 2016, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, briefed Michael Flynn, her designated successor in the new administration. In 2020, Trump’s legal challenges to the election results delayed the start of the transition process by several weeks, and presidential briefings with Biden did not begin until November 30.

Who is helping Trump through this process?

Trump’s transition is being led primarily by friends and family, including Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, as well as the president-elect’s grown sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his running mate , JD Vance. The transition co-chairs are Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the former wrestling director who previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

Lutnick said this year’s operation is “as different as possible” from the 2016 effort, which was first led by Chris Christie. After winning eight years ago, Trump fired Christie, scrapped plans the former New Jersey governor had made, and handed the task of leading the transition to Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Early in his first term, Trump assembled an original Cabinet that included several Republicans and business leaders who eventually disappointed him or publicly broke with him, or both. This time around, Trump has vowed to value loyalty as much as possible — a philosophy that may ensure he makes choices that are more closely aligned with his ideological beliefs and bombastic professional style.