Trump is operating his transition from New York. I understand he has suggested that, once he becomes President, he will spend future weekends at Trump Tower, New York. This may be unusual, some say unprecedented, but the good news is that as long as he is in New York he won’t be doing as much harm as he would staying in Washington.
There’s only one problem with this. If Trump isn’t running the country, who is? Most likely it’ll be the more conventional Republicans: Pence, McConnell, Ryan, etc… While I’m no fan of Trump, at least he’s an ineffective leader. If he decides not to be involved in the day-to-day running of the country, important decisions will be made by those who actually know how government works, and how to get legislation through quickly. The more establishment Republicans also have some dangerous ideas. Ryan’s tax plan is actually more regressive than Trump’s- almost all of the benefits of the tax cuts go to the top 1%. Entitlement reform is a similar story. Trump wants to protect and expand entitlements, albeit in an unsustainable way due to the revenue losses as a result of his tax cuts. Republicans have been looking to cut entitlements severely since the Tea Party movement swept them to power in 2010. With all branches of government in control, including an easily manipulatable Trump, there’s very little stopping them.