Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised former President Trump’s intention to pay his own transition, noting that it is unprecedented.
“Normally, the transition team is not formed until November 6th because the General Accounting Office, or GAO, covers the whole cost of the transition team. Trump stated, ‘I’m not going to do it this time. I’m not going to do things their way. I am planning to create my own transition team three months early. “And he got private donors to fund it,” Kennedy remarked at a Trump-Vance rally over the weekend.
The comments come after Trump appeared on the renowned Joe Rogan podcast, where he detailed some of the mistakes he made during his first presidential campaign in 2016, including putting people in places he later regretted on his staff.
This time, Trump started the process of privately funding his transition early, expecting to learn from his mistakes and hit the ground running with a strategy if he wins the election.
Trump has come under fire over the last week for comments made by former officials in his administration, including former Trump chief of staff John Kelly, who said in an interview with the New York Times that his former boss met the definition of a fascist and at times praised German dictator Adolf Hitler.
In response to the interview, Trump denied praising Hitler and slammed Kelly, calling his former chief of staff a “lowlife”.
Trump said in August that Kennedy, who suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed the former president this year, will join his transition team, along with former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who crossed party lines to support Trump in 2024.
Kennedy said that having such a diverse collection of supporters working with the transition would be beneficial if Trump were to win the election.
“There’s people of all different kinds of ideology and people who we’re going to have to go up against on that transition team and fight for our vision,” according to Kennedy. “But I can tell you something unique: there are no corporate lobbyists on that transition team. Typically, it is entirely composed of corporate lobbyists. So it’s quite unusual, and it gives me great faith that this government will be unlike any we’ve ever seen.”