--- ---  # White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 3, 2016 6:14 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama waves upon returning to the White House July 5, 2016 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Barack Obama waves upon returning to the White House July 5, 2016 in Washington, DC.Olivier Douliery—Pool/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 3, 2016 6:14 PM UTC White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that President Obama’s Administration is committed to a “smooth” transition to the next president. Earnest said at a press briefing that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonoughplaced calls to both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaigns at the end of last week “to make them aware of the variety of resources that can be used to benefit their transition-planning activities,” including office space the General Services Administrationmade available for the campaigns’ transition teams and intelligence briefings. “The President made clear at the beginning of this year that one of his goals for the year, one of his top goals for this year, was to ensure a smooth transition from the Obama Administration to the next president,” Earnest said. Earnest said Obama has previously recognized how his Administration and the public benefitted from President George Bush’s “effective planning” and that Obama aspires to meet at least the same standard. These comments come on the heels of Obama’s critique of Trump on Tuesday, when the president said Trump is [“unfit” to be president](http://time.com/4435282/president-obama-donald-trump-unfit-president/?xid=homepage). “This Administration is committed to working both effectively with the Democratic nominee and the Republican nominee to ensure that once the American people have made a decision about who should lead our country that that transition can take place smoothly,” Earnest said. White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4437367/white-house-transition/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4437367/white-house-transition/"},"headline":"White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition","datePublished":"2016-08-03T18:14:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:45:07.149Z","description":"White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Administration is committed to a \"smooth\" transition to the next president.","url":"https://time.com/4437367/white-house-transition/","keywords":["White House","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Barack Obama","Donald Trump","Josh Earnest"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16dab3839028aff0/69889fd1e20a871f6ea91cd3/obama-presidential-library-chicago.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16dab3839028aff0/69889fd1e20a871f6ea91cd3/obama-presidential-library-chicago.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Returns to the White House","caption":"U.S. President Barack Obama waves upon returning to the White House July 5, 2016 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Olivier Douliery—Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4437367/white-house-transition/","name":"White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition"}}]}] ```