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After the assassination of then-President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the United States Congress ratified the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides for an orderly transition of power in the event of a president’s death, resignation, or disability.
First in line for this transition of power is the vice president, in this case, Mike Pence.
But if Donald Trump does not fulfill his duties, this transition is not automatic. Before that, it must be determined that the president is indeed disabled.
The 25th Amendment states that the president himself can make that determination and, by letter sent to the Senate, formally hand over power to the vice president, who would govern until Trump informed the Senate that he intended to return to office.
“Whenever the President transmits to the presidents of the Senate and the House of Representatives his written declaration that he cannot exercise the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits a written declaration to the contrary, those powers and duties must be delivered to the Vice President, ”says the Constitution of the United States.
Former President Ronald Reagan declared incapacity when he underwent surgery to remove malignant polyps, and George W. Bush did it twice when he underwent colonoscopies. In both cases, power was transferred to the deputies for only a few hours, while the presidents were anesthetized.
THE New York Times recently reported that Mike Pence was about to temporarily assume the leadership of the White House in 2019, when Trump faced the possibility of undergoing a procedure that required general anesthesia, which turned out not to be necessary.
And what if a president is so incapacitated that he cannot transmit power? According to another clause of the Constitution, in this scenario the Vice President and a majority of the Office of the President could technically withdraw their power. If the deputy and cabinet members did not reach a consensus, Congress and the Senate could vote to permanently remove the president from power.
This clause was designed for cases in which a president is in a coma or suffers a stroke.
Who follows vice in the line of succession?
After Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Next in line is the Leader of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi. If she can’t take power either, the president follows for the moment Senate (temporary), which in this case is Republican Chuck Grassley.
Only then do the 15 members of the Office of the President follow the line of succession, beginning with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and ending with Secretary of Homeland Security.
Therefore, in a normal scenario, there would be no shortage of options in the line of succession to take the place of Donald Trump in the event that he becomes disabled. But the current scenario is anything but normal: the United States, like the rest of the world, is experiencing a pandemic and President Trump, now infected, has been in contact with several of the people who could eventually replace him.
If some of these people test positive for Covid-19 and are unable to rule the United States, the list of successors will be further shortened.
In the last days, Donald Trump was in contact with Vice President Mike Pence and with the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, fifth in the line of succession, who, in turn, was in contact with Nancy Pelosi.
In addition to these contacts, other members of the White House close to Trump have been meeting with senators and traveling on business in recent days, raising concerns about a possible chain of transmission.
A little over a month before the presidential elections, The United States is the country most affected by the new coronavirus. There are already 7.2 million people infected, including more than 207,000 deaths. About 3.5 million people are reported to have recovered.
