--- title: White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition description: White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Administration is committed to a "smooth" transition to the next president. canonical: https://time.com/4437367/white-house-transition/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-03T18:14:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:48.234Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition og:description: Obama Administration working with Trump, Clinton teams. og:url: https://time.com/4437367/white-house-transition/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16dab3839028aff0/69889fd1e20a871f6ea91cd3/obama-presidential-library-chicago.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Obama Returns to the White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition twitter:description: Obama Administration working with Trump, Clinton teams. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16dab3839028aff0/69889fd1e20a871f6ea91cd3/obama-presidential-library-chicago.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Planning for a 'Smooth' Transition > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. 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. ```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":"2026-08-19T07:45:48.234Z","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","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"}}]}] ```