American presidents are inaugurated in January, but the process of coordinating the changing of the guard between an outgoing and incoming administration begins weeks before Americans cast their votes in November. Nothing about this election cycle has been normal, but Donald Trump is breaking yet another campaign expectation by refusing to participate in presidential transition preparations.

This is evident from a Wednesday report from The New York Times, the former president missed two key deadlines and failed to sign three documents needed for the transition — two of which are required by federal law.

Trump continues to insist he will retake the White House in November, exacting revenge on those he believes stole a second administration from him in 2020. So why is he bypassing the presidential transition process? Probably because signing the required documents would bind him to financial and ethical guidelines that he would rather avoid.

According to the Times, Trump’s campaign did not sign a General Services Administration agreement — one that would grant the campaign access to workspace, technical support and federal funding to help with the transition — by the September 1 deadline. If agreed to, the campaign would have to make private donations to their transition fund public and place a $5,000 limit on individual contributions. Without the voluntary disclosure agreement, the money raised to fund Trump’s transition will essentially be dumped into a black hole, as the Federal Election Commission has no oversight of the transition funds.

The Trump campaign missed another deadline last week, failing to sign White House paperwork that would allow members of Trump’s staff to receive national security information and classified documents before the election. This second agreement can only happen if the Trump campaign also signs an ethics plan to limit conflicts of interest when hiring new staff, which they have so far refused to do.

According to the Times, The Trump campaign transition team has had staff sign their own ethics documents, but the documents include much more lenient requirements for former lobbyists and representatives of foreign governments than for the White House.

On Thursday, a CNN report confirmed that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has signed the White House General Services Agreement and ethics plan.

An administration official who served under both Biden and former President Barack Obama told CNN that the current transition process is similar to the Trump campaign’s refusal to engage with Obama’s staff during the 2016 transition.

“We were waiting for the calls (from the Trump team), waiting for people to show up, but that never happened. They never took our memos,” they said of Trump’s first term, adding that the current team around the former president “has shown no indication that they want to use anything we offer them.”