President Joe Biden is "playing dirty" against President-elect Donald Trump by enacting a series of last-minute actions designed to thwart the incoming administration, according to a former Trump aide.
"President Trump's going to be in office dealing with actual, real problems," former Undersecretary for Defense Ezra Cohen told the Daily Mail.
"Now he has to deal with stuff like this. It's just bad for America that they're doing this."
Biden's actions include enacting federal rules that will take months for the new administration to change, shifting the order of succession in federal agencies, meaning pro-Biden staffers will be in charge until Trump's nominees are confirmed, and spending billions in federal funds for clean energy initiatives and other Biden White House priorities.
The moves aren't insurmountable, said Cohen, but still, they are Biden's way of "throwing sand in the gears to try to interfere with President Trump."
The Biden administration, meanwhile, says it's just trying to secure his legacy, but he's also giving two speeches in his final week, while most presidents spend final weeks in office trying to shore up their priorities as the new president takes over.
Further, Biden has pledged to cooperate for a smooth transition compared to 2020, when Trump would not concede the race.
Biden has laughed when he was asked about Trump trying to overturn his actions, telling USA Today that the president-elect will "have a hard time undoing a lot."
Trump has also accused Biden of being "sneaky."
The president-elect has planned at least 100 executive orders to sign on Inauguration Day, but Biden has implemented several policies that can't easily be swept away.
"They go in and they say, remember, this is a man that said he wants the transition to be smooth. Well, you don't do these kind of things," Trump told reporters last week at Mar-a-Lago.
For example, Biden has reordered the line of succession, issuing an executive order to put the U.S. attorney for the district of New York in charge at the Department of Justice once Attorney General Merrick Garland and his staff resign on Inauguration Day.
But the New York attorney resigned two weeks before Biden signed the order of succession, putting U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino in Arizona next in line.
Restaino, who does not agree with Trump's border policies, will remain in charge of federal cases until the Senate presumably approves attorney general nominee Pam Bondi and top DOJ staff.
Cohen said similar ploys are being done across multiple departments and agencies.
"Until President Trump gets his people confirmed, there is a risk that you will have hand-picked people by the previous administration in place, in control of these departments and agencies, and you know that's obviously going to make things more difficult," said Cohen.
Biden has also been spending federal funds, so he can dictate where the money goes before Trump takes over, with money coming from the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, legislation that provides more than $4 trillion in investments.
Trump has promised to pull back unspent funds under the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows billions to what he calls Bidens' "waste of money" climate initiatives.
Biden has also been rushing through confirmations, bringing in 235 federal judges over the past four years, one more than those confirmed by Trump.
The current administration is also pushing through federal rules on limiting junk fees, capping bank overcharges, and using tax credits for clean energy, which Republicans say is an overreach of power.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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