Trump and the coronavirus: 4 risk factors 2:58
(CNN) -
President Donald Trump has tested positive for COVID-19 and will remain in a hospital.
Here's what will happen if you start to have symptoms and get too sick to fulfill your role as president.
The Constitution establishes the rules for succession
When Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, was hospitalized with COVID-19 this year, it was underscored that there was no formal succession procedure in the UK and serious questions were raised about who was running the country.
Johnson asked his foreign secretary to be the alternate if he was completely incapacitated.
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In the United States, there are specific guidelines in both the Constitution and federal law that dictate who takes over if Trump cannot do his job.
(Here is the line of succession).
But the first step in these cases is to determine that a president is incapacitated.
And at this point there is very little clarity.
Under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, he could make that determination himself and, with a letter to the Senate, formally hand over power to Vice President Mike Pence.
He would then rule until Trump informed the Senate of his return to power.
Here's how this is expressed in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment:
“Provided that the president transmits to the president pro tempore of the Senate and to the president of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is incapable of fulfilling 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 carried out by the vice president as acting president ”.
Background
Ronald Reagan did this when he had cancerous polyps removed from his colon and George W. Bush did it twice when he had to have colonoscopies.
In both cases, when the presidents were under anesthesia, they handed over power for a few hours, though Reagan questioned whether it was an intended use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
The reporter of
The New York Times
Mike Schmidt recently reported that Pence was prepared to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency in 2019, when it was possible that Trump had to undergo a procedure requiring anesthesia at the Walter Reed hospital.
However, very little is known about that situation and the White House has been cautious about the details.
Cabinet can intervene
There is another clause in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment that is worth considering.
If the president were incapacitated to such an extent that he could not temporarily transmit power, the vice president and a majority of the cabinet could, technically, take it away from him.
If the vice president and a cabinet majority disagree, a supermajority of Congress and the Senate could vote to remove him permanently.
This clause had in mind a president who was in a coma or suffered a stroke.
The Reagan administration wrote, but did not sign or transmit, letters to the Senate that would have removed the president from power after he was shot in 1981. You can view them on the Reagan Library website.
Dwight Eisenhower, for example, suffered a debilitating heart attack while in office in the 1950s. That was before the Twenty-fifth Amendment, so there was no constitutional rule.
Instead he reached an agreement with Vice President Richard Nixon on the handover of power.
What if many people in the succession line get sick?
The other element to consider is that since COVID-19 has infiltrated the White House, it is possible, although not likely, that the virus could incapacitate various members of the Government.
Trump has been in close contact with Pence and with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
He has been in contact with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
His Supreme Court candidate, Amy Coney Barrett, has been working in the White House and has gone to the Capitol to meet with senators.
The Presidential Succession Law is a law that has been in force since 1948 and establishes a very long line of succession for the presidency "if, due to death, resignation, removal from office, incapacity or lack of qualifications, neither a president nor a vice president to carry out the powers and duties of the office of president ”.
First is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, although he or she would have to resign from Congress.
Then comes the longest-serving US senator.
Then go to the cabinet.
And beyond the succession plans, the United States has developed plans to keep the government functioning, what is called government continuity, in the face of all kinds of eventualities.
Contingency plans
The Obama administration's Department of Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem said on CNN on Friday that people shouldn't worry that the government isn't working.
"Given the probability that statistically the Trumps will be fine, they could be out of service for a couple of days, I think the consequences will be more political than anything else," he said, noting the contingency in the government's planning.
'The systems are in place, they seem to be working.
You are nervous because it is a time to be nervous, but in terms of the fact that Trump is not the presidency, nor is it the United States, we have plans for any contingency that may occur, "he explained.
What about the elections?
One contingency that would be unprecedented in modern times is if a presidential candidate becomes too ill to run a campaign.
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Both Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden are on the ballot.
People are already voting by mail and absentee voting, and the elections will go according to plan.
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