President Obama will ensure that a potential Donald Trump victory is followed by a smooth leadership transition, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.

Obama "made clear [that] one of his top goals for this year was to ensure a smooth transition from the Obama administration to the next president," Earnest said. "And President Obama has talked before about how this administration benefited significantly from the effective planning of President George W. Bush's White House."

"And even though that transition took place across party lines, the effective coordination is something that benefited the incoming president, and the American people more generally, and the president aspires to meet, if not exceed, that very high standard that was set by the Bush White House," he said.

To that end, Obama Chief of Staff Denis McDonough met with the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Trump last week to further discuss a potential transition. The General Services Administration has offered both camps office space in which they can work and plan their transition, and Obama has made officials across the government available to the campaigns.

The Obama administration is "committed to working both effectively with the Democratic and Republican nominee to ensure that once the American people have made a decision about who should lead our country, that that transition can take place smoothly," Earnest said.

Earnest dismissed the idea that Obama and his officials would somehow block or make it more difficult for Trump to assume power if he wins on Election Day.

"We're planning for a smooth transition," Earnest replied. "And that's the responsible step you would expect the commander in chief to undertake."

Obama is committed to "engaging in that process across party lines in the same way that his predecessor did."

He said the government is planning for a general transition at this point, not a specific Trump or Clinton victory.

"Right now we're not planning to transition with them; we're planning for a transition, and we're incorporating both campaigns into that process," he said. The idea of how a transition to a Trump administration plays out becomes "more relevant once the American people nave decided who the next president should be," he said.