Trump mess to haunt US for ‘years to come’
WASHINGTON: After months of denial and a last-minute concession on the back of a violent coup attempt by his supporters, Donald Trump will finally hand the White House to Joe Biden this week.
For the small army who have been working for almost a year towards an orderly transition of power to a new administration, it couldn’t come soon enough.
Mr Trump wasn’t the first contender to challenge a
presidential vote but some experts say his refusal to accept the results for more than three months may have longlasting ramifications.
Mr Biden will inherit a nation riven by civil conflict, escalating tensions with China and Russia and a flailing coronavirus response and its resultant shattered economy.
While his transition team was given belated intelligence briefings and updates on threats to national security in late November, it was only in the past week that COVID vaccination data was shared.
“There are really things that the Trump administration has done to make it harder on us,” said Mr Biden.
Some commentators believe the delays could come with a heavy price.
“When a president and his team come in, they’re jumping on a moving train,” said Martha Kumar, the director of the White House Transition Project. “The government operations don’t stop. They continue, and you want to know what’s ahead.”
The stalled presidential election results in 2000, which Democrat Al Gore eventually conceded to Republican George W. Bush, is widely seen as having set back the US response to the thengrowing terror threat from alQaeda and is partly blamed for the scale of the September 11 terror attacks. Presidential historian Mark Updegrove warned the Trump delays could be felt for years to come.
“Donald Trump’s patriotism has to be put into question given his mishandling of this transition,” he said.
But Mr Biden’s age — 78 — and his four decades as a Washington insider could help smooth the delayed transition, said Lara Brown from George Washington University.
“If there is anyone who can kind of hit the ground running ... it’s him,” she said.