WHAT HAPPENS IF TRUMP DIES OR CANNOT SERVE?

By Nicolas Fandos and Nick Corasaniti

New York Times

The Constitution and the law are clearest in instances when a president dies or must resign from office. The 25th Amendment states: “In case of the removal of the president from office or of his death or resignation, the vice president shall become president.”

The ascension of a vice president under such circumstances has not been that rare in United States history. A vice president has assumed the nation’s highest office because of the president’s death eight times, most recently in 1963, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, when Lyndon B. Johnson became president. (In 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford became president after the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.)

The Constitution leaves it to Congress to decide what should happen if the vice president also dies or cannot serve, and several laws have been enacted to lay out the contingencies.

The most recent, the Presidential Succession Act, was enacted in 1947 after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945. (It was tweaked again in 2006.) The statute says the speaker of the House is next in line, followed by the president pro tempore of the Senate, and then members of the cabinet, starting with the secretary of state.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80, said on Friday that she had tested negative for the virus and was confident that the right plans were in place, should they become necessary.

“Continuity of government is always in place,” she said on MSNBC. “I always say it’s a relic of the past, but nonetheless, they say we have our job we have to do, and this is what we’ll do.”

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, is the current president pro tempore in the Senate. He is 87.

What if the president is too ill to perform his duties?

Under the 25th Amendment, ratified in the 1960s to clarify presidential disability and succession planning, presidents can voluntarily designate powers to their vice presidents if they become seriously ill or are unable to perform their duties.

If Mr. Trump became gravely ill, he could provide letters to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate saying he was “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” to transfer his powers to Mr. Pence, who would, in effect, become acting president. Mr. Trump could reclaim his full authorities when he recovered.

On Friday afternoon, as Mr. Trump was expected to depart for Walter Reed, Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said the president would remain fully in power.

“No transfer,” he said. “The president is in charge.”

Since the amendment was ratified in 1967, the vice president has taken power in only three instances, each of them exceedingly brief. In 1985, when President Ronald Reagan was put under anesthesia for a colon procedure, he granted his powers to Vice President George Bush for about eight hours, though he avoided formally invoking the amendment. And in 2002 and 2007, President George W. Bush temporarily transferred his authorities to Vice President Dick Cheney during colonoscopies.

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