'Black Swan' Exercise to Give Trump's Team Practice for Security Crisis
Learn about the 'black swan' exercise crucial to Donald Trump's transition.
— -- Donald Trump's transition team is getting a helping hand from the Obama administration on national security matters.
The administration is giving the president-elect and a select few of his top advisers sensitive intelligence briefings.
And, in addition, Trump and his team will take part in two so-called 'black swan' exercises that simulate a domestic or national security emergency.
The exercises are intended to help an incoming administration learn how to manage a crisis in real time in case there is some kind of global or domestic emergency in the first days of a Trump presidency.
A black swan exercise would, for example, ensure that a fledgling Trump administration knows how to activate the proper federal agencies to maintain stability.
According to a briefing book from the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition, in 2008 the Bush administration hosted two black swan exercises for then president-elect Obama's national security team.
Janet Napolitano, then the incoming Department of Homeland Security secretary, said the first exercise, done in a federal office building in Washington, D.C., simulated an event in which multiple bombs were detonated in different locations across the United States.
The Obama team members practiced how they would receive and process information and activate the appropriate agencies to respond.
A second, fuller exercise was conducted for Obama staff members before the new president took office in January 2009. That one, conducted in the White House situation room, had Obama's incoming Cabinet members working alongside their outgoing counterparts from Bush's team.
This fuller exercise received mixed reviews because it lasted only two hours, according to some officials. It was later recommended that the exercise be made longer and more realistic.
A National Security Council official said dates for the exercises have yet to be set with Trump's team.
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