Throughout The Fifth Risk, Lewis highlights risks at every turn, beginning with the risk of a bad transition between presidential administrations. He includes the work of Max Stier and the Partnership for Public Service in the Preface to show that a lack of continuity between presidents does not necessarily mean that the partisan work of Obama needed to be continued by Trump; rather, it had more to do with practical management. He cites work on improving hiring processes between the Bush and Obama administrations, saying, “The George W. Bush administration had begun to attack that particular mundane problem. The Obama administration, instead of running with the work done during the Bush years, had simply started all over again” (27). Not taking seriously the progress of a previous administration can leave the new one stuck in the weeds, which can have lasting effects. Regardless of political ideology, new staff members need to understand why certain issues were approached the way that they were.

Lewis gives readers a sense of this in the Preface by noting that Donald Trump was unwilling to take seriously the work of the transition team and instead opted to handle it himself. The effect, seen throughout the book, is that very few showed up to help transition between departments in the months following the election.