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[[File:capitol-in-1800.jpg|thumbnail|left|400px|Figure 1. Thomas Jefferson becoming the third US President, which John Adams helped ensure by not contesting the ultimate decision by Congress to elect Jefferson.]]__NOTOC__
Fortunately for the United States, presidential transitions have generally been smooth and mostly without trouble. However, in a few cases, some of the transitions were awkward or even hostile. The history of transitions has also sometimes set precedent followed to this day.
Given the lessons learned, the Bush administration made a concerted effort to quickly accept Obama's 2008 election victory so that the transition could be done quickly and without problems. The incoming Obama administration was able to gain access to classified and other information that enabled them to access different branches of the government, which also facilitated their response to the 2008 financial crisis. This helped to ensure that national security data, in particular, could be shared within a day after Obama was declared the winner. With this lesson, Obama also made a point to enable an easy transition to Trump's presidency, inviting the president-elect two days after the November 2016 election.
The 2020 Presidential transition was a catastrophe. President Donald Trump did everything within his power in an attempt to overturn the election. These efforts culminated on Jan 6th, 2020 with Trump supporters storming the United States Capital in an effort to stop the Joint Session of Congress to certify the presidential election. Over the next few years, it will become clear how Trump tried to overturn the election. Trump set a dangerous precedent that could have consequences for future presidential elections.
Since the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, only the 2000 and 2020 elections took more than two days to enable the GSA to formally start the transition process to the incoming administration.<ref>For more background on recent transitions of power, see: Kumar, M.J., 2015. <i>Before the oath: how George W. Bush and Barack Obama managed a transfer of power</i>. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:United States History]] [[Category:Political History]]
