Biden swore in roughly 1,000 political appointees via Zoom on inauguration day in 2021, while Trump had filled far fewer positions in his first weeks after taking office in 2017. How does this difference affect transition preparedness?

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Biden swore in roughly 1,000 political appointees via Zoom on inauguration day in 2021, while Trump had filled far fewer positions in his first weeks after taking office in 2017. How does this difference affect transition preparedness?

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Biden's transition team spent months identifying, vetting, and preparing appointees so that roughly 1,000 could be sworn in on Day One via a virtual ceremony. Trump's less organized 2017 transition left many agency positions unfilled for months—career civil servants and Obama-era holdovers continued running agencies. Empty positions mean the previous administration's policies continue by default. Project 2025 addresses this problem from the conservative side: by pre-vetting 20,000 candidates and writing agency playbooks, Heritage Foundation ensures a future Republican president can fill positions even faster than Biden did. Systematic transition planning directly determines how quickly a new president can implement the agenda voters elected them to pursue.

Biden swore in roughly 1,000 political appointees via Zoom on inauguration day in 2021, while Trump had filled far fewer positions in his first weeks after taking office in 2017. How does this difference affect transition preparedness?

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