By Zachary B. Wolf | CNN
President Donald Trump has tested positive for Covid-19 and is quarantining with first lady Melania Trump.
Here’s what happens if he begins to show symptoms and gets too sick to fulfill his role as President.
The Constitution lays out rules for succession
When Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, was hospitalized with Covid this year it underscored that there was no formal succession procedure in the UK and raised serious questions about who was leading the country. Johnson called on his foreign secretary to be deputized if he was fully incapacitated.
In the US, there are specific guidelines both in the Constitution and in federal law that dictate who takes over if Trump can’t do his work. But the first step is determining that a President is incapacitated — and on this point there is very little clarity.
According to the 25th Amendment, he could make that determination himself and, with a letter to the Senate, formally hand power to Vice President Mike Pence, who would then govern until Trump informed the Senate that he was taking power back.
Here’s how that looks in the 25th Amendment:
“Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.”
Ronald Reagan did this when he had cancerous polyps removed from his colon and George W. Bush did it twice when he had colonoscopies. In both cases, when the presidents were under anesthesia, they handed over power for a few hours, although Reagan disputed it was an intended use of the 25th Amendment.
The New York Times reporter Mike Schmidt recently reported that Pence was on standby to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency in 2019, when it was possible Trump would have to undergo a procedure requiring anesthesia at Walter Reed hospital, although very little is known about that situation and the White House has been guarded about details.
The Cabinet can step in
There is another clause in the 25th Amendment that’s worth considering. If the President were incapacitated to such a degree that he could not temporarily transmit power, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet could, technically, take it from him. If the vice president and a majority of the cabinet disagree, a supermajority of Congress and the Senate could vote to take it from him permanently.
This clause had in mind a President who was in a coma or suffered a stroke.
The Reagan administration drafted, but did not sign or transmit, letters to the Senate that would have taken power from Reagan after he was shot in 1981. You can see them at the Reagan Library’s website.
Dwight Eisenhower, for instance, suffered a debilitating heart attack while in office in the 1950s. That was before the 25th Amendment, so there was no constitutional rule. Instead he came to an agreement with Vice President Richard Nixon about handing over power.
Line of succession for the president and vice president
Article 2, Section 1, Clause 6, Constitution of the United States: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
If the vice president cannot serve, the line of succession falls to the speaker of the House, then to the Senate president pro tempore, then to Cabinet members.
The Cabinet line of succession is:
1. Secretary of State
2. Secretary of the Treasury
3. Secretary of Defense
4. Attorney General
5. Secretary of the Interior
6. Secretary of Agriculture
7. Secretary of Commerce
8. Secretary of Labor
9. Secretary of Health and Human Services
10. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
11. Secretary of Transportation
12. Secretary of Energy
13. Secretary of Education
14. Secretary of Veterans Affairs
15. Secretary of Homeland Security
Eight vice presidents have assumed the presidency upon the death of the president; one upon the president’s resignation.
The president pro tempore serves as leader of the Senate in the vice president’s absence and is usually the senior member of the majority party.
The 20th Amendment provides that the vice president-elect becomes president if the president-elect dies before his term starts but after the Electoral College has met.
The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to serve as acting president temporarily in the case that the president is ill or otherwise temporarily unable to fulfill his or her official duties. On July 13, 1985, Vice President George H. W. Bush served as president for eight hours while President Ronald Reagan had surgery.
