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Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi with Donald Trump.
Source: LEAH MILLIS
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump, who will attend a military hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, could invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to temporarily hand over power to Vice President Mike Pence should he become incapacitated.
Trump confirmed at 6 a.m. Irish time today that he and his wife Melania had tested positive for the virus.
With just over 30 days until the presidential election, the focus will now be firmly on Trump’s health, and what happens if he becomes incapacitated.
Adopted in 1967, the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution establishes the provisions for a transfer of power of a president of the United States who dies, resigns, is removed from office, or for other reasons unable to perform his duties.
American lawmakers had begun to address the issue in the late 1950s amid the ill health of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
It became more urgent after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the 25th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1965 and ratified by the required three-quarters of the 50 US states two years later.
Section 3 of Amendment 25 addresses the transfer of presidential powers to the vice president, in this case Mike Pence, when the president declares that he cannot fulfill the powers and duties of the office.
Section 4 addresses a situation where the vice president and the cabinet majority determine that the president can no longer serve.
Section 4 has never been invoked.
However, section 3 has been invoked three times.
The first was in July 1985 when President Ronald Reagan underwent surgery under general anesthesia to remove a cancerous polyp from his large intestine.
Vice President George HW Bush was named interim president for about eight hours while Reagan was in surgery.
President George W. Bush temporarily transferred power to Vice President Dick Cheney in June 2002 and July 2007 while he underwent routine colonoscopies under anesthesia.
Following Reagan’s serious injuries in an assassination attempt in 1981, a letter invoking Section 3 was drawn up, but never sent.
In the event that Trump is unable to fulfill his duties, he must inform House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in writing that he is unable to fulfill the duties of the office and that he is temporarily transferring power to Pence.
Under Section 4, the vice president and a majority of the cabinet members report to the Senate and House leaders that the president is unable to perform his duties and the vice president becomes interim president.
However, if a president challenges a determination that he or she is unable to fulfill his or her duties, it is up to Congress to make the decision.
It would take a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to declare the president unfit to remain in office.
Trump could invoke Section 3 in case he becomes seriously ill or needs to be hooked up to a ventilator.
If Pence became president, he could elect a Republican vice president. But what if somehow or other Pence himself was incapacitated?
Next in line is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat, followed by the Senate’s highest-ranking Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is the Speaker pro tempore of that House. and is 87 years old.
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After that, members of Trump’s cabinet are leaked, starting with Secretary of State (currently Mike Pompeo), followed by Secretary of the Treasury (Steven Mnuchin), Secretary of Defense (Mark Esper), Attorney General ( Bill Barr) and the interior. secretary (David Bernhardt).
Of course, this is all hypothetical, but it poses a potentially unprecedented scenario for the United States.
A White House spokesperson has confirmed tonight that Trump will leave the White House to attend Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington DC and will work from the hospital for the next few days.
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