Donald Trump picks transition team led by ex-Cabinet aide, JD Vance and sons

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's presidential campaign announced its official "transition team" on Friday, a sign of confidence the Republican expects to prevail in the November election but also a requirement of the law.

Former Trump administration official Linda McMahon and businessman Howard Lutnick are co-chairs of the "organization that will ready his second administration," the Trump campaign said.

Federal law requires major presidential candidates to name transition teams before the election so that they will have as much time as possible to prepare for assuming the presidency. Transition teams are also supposed to ease any handoff in power, though that proved problematic after the 2020 election because of then-President Trump's protests over an election he lost to Joe Biden and the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 .

Vice President Kamala Harris , who will accept the Democratic presidential nomination next week at the party's convention, will also appoint a transition team.

Trump’s official transition will be led by McMahon, who headed the Small Business Administration in the previous Trump administration, and Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald; both are major donors to the Trump 2024 campaign.

The team also has honorary co-chairs: Vice presidential nominee JD Vance and two of the presidential candidate's sons, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump.

In a written statement, Trump senior wrote that "I have absolute confidence the Trump-Vance Administration will be ready to govern effectively on Day One.”

Trump said his transition team will work to put into practice an agenda that includes tax cuts, mass deportations of migrants, expansion of the U.S. energy industry, and making non-political government employees more beholden to the White House. Trump has also talked about using the Justice Department to go after political opponents.

Harris and aides said Trump wants an authoritarian-style government as outlined by the architects of "Project 2025." They also said a second Trump administration would work to end abortion rights and reduce health care.

After the former president held a news conference Thursday, Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said: “The American people cannot trust a word Donald Trump says."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump picks transition team led by ex-Cabinet aide, JD Vance and sons