How the Trump transition ethics pledge differs from recent norms

WASHINGTON: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's team signed an agreement on Tuesday with President Joe Biden's administration to coordinate with federal agencies and share documents, after weeks of delays.

The Trump team also posted a separate ethics pledge on the website of the General Services Administration, which echoes the standard ethics pledge signed by other past presidential candidates, ethics experts say, with some notable differences.

Here's how the Trump pledge compares to one signed by Vice President Kamala Harris, also posted on the GSA website, and other presidential candidates:

STOCK PURCHASES

Standard presidential ethics pledges including the ones signed by Harris in 2024 and Biden in 2020, have included a rule that "Transition Team members (and their spouses and minor children) may not buy or sell individual stocks during their service with the Transition absent advance approval of the office of general counsel."

There are no guidelines about individual stock sales, or any stock sales in the Trump pledge.

LOBBYING

In the Harris agreement, people who have registered as lobbyists can only serve on the transition team with the approval of the general counsel and are prohibited from contributing to or soliciting contributions for the transition. People cannot work on a specific transition matter if they lobbied on it in the past 12 months or plan to in the next 12.

The Trump agreement is slightly different. It bars any registered lobbyist from serving on the transition team, and asks members to disqualify themselves from working on any matter if they lobbied on it in the past 12 months.

TRUMP'S ASSETS AND CONFLICTS

The standard pledge contains a promise that the candidate, if elected, will "avoid both actual and apparent conflicts of interest" and to "hold only non-conflicting assets, such as assets exempt from conflict by regulation."

The Trump transition team pledge contains no mention of Trump's personal ethics or assets.

It's a notable difference, said Enzo Benoit, spokesman for the Partnership for Public Service, which monitors transitions. But it may be a minor issue because Trump will be bound by the more detailed conflicts of interest requirements when he actually takes office.

WHISTLEBLOWERS

The Harris ethics agreement says the transition "has adopted a whistleblower policy and will address promptly alleged violations of ethics requirements." There is no mention of whistleblowers in the Trump pledge.