What happens if Trump is incapacitated by COVID-19?

THERE'S A 25TH AMENDMENT FOR THAT

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted in the night that he and his wife had both tested positive for COVID-19, sparking questions of all sorts, including: what happens if he becomes incapacitated by the coronavirus?

While Trump said in his tweet that he is beginning his quarantine and recovery, and Melania Trump tweeted “we are feeling good,” data shows that at the age of 74, Trump faces a significantly higher risk of death or hospitalization.

The drafters of the U.S. Constitution had the foresight to envision succession as a possible problem, and included a clause declaring that in the event of a president's “inability” to retain office, the vice-president assumes the president's “powers and duties.”

The Constitution had to cover a lot of ground, and it didn't wade deep into the weeds on the details, including how it is determined that a president has an “inability.”

In the old days, it was sometimes the president's staff, or his wife, who ran the show for a stretch.

It was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy during tense Cold War drama that sparked an urgent need for clarity.

After Kennedy died, his vice-president, Lyndon B. Johnson, was sworn in as president. However, stability was shaken: Not only had the youngest elected president suddenly been removed from office, Johnson, the replacement, now had no vice-president of his own and had previously suffered a heart attack.

The 25th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, designed to set it all down on paper, was proposed in 1965 and ratified in 1967. It is titled Presidential Vacancy, Disability, and Inability.

The amendment deals with the details of the Constitution's broad strokes on the process of maintaining top executive authority in the United States.

If the president is removed from office, resigns, or dies, it is straightforward: the vice-president becomes the president. Nine VPS have made it to the Oval Office that way, most recently Gerald Ford who became president when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.

Section three of the amendment allows for a clear process in simple cases. For example, when a president will be under anesthetic for a surgery, the president writes to both the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro tempore of the Senate, alerting them to the incapacity. When the president is on the mend, they write them again to say it's all good, they're back.

During the interim, the vice-president has the hot seat, but only as the acting president. In this case, Mike Pence would fill in for Trump while he recovered. George W. Bush did this twice when he was undergoing medical procedures.

Section four of the amendment tackles touchier situations.

What happens if the president is incapacitated without the warning of a scheduled medical procedure, and isn't able to write those letters?

In this case the vice-president, in conjunction with a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments, writes a letter declaring the president is incapable of executing his duties and powers. The vice-president then takes over as acting president.

A president then can return by writing an update, declaring “that no inability exists,” and they then return to office.

The thorniest of all situations envisioned in the amendment, is when a president insists they are capable and the vice-president and the majority of executive officers disagree.

In this case, the executives have four days to again write to Senate and House leaders and again declare the president incapable.

This triggers a convening of Congress, which then has 21 days to decide who's right. The president can then only be pushed aside by a twothirds vote of both the House and Senate.

If either vote fails to muster that support, the president remains in office with all the powers and duties that entails.

That's a tough hurdle, by design. The drafters of the amendment did not want a president to be ousted easily. It had to be a clear and obvious case when a president was removed kicking and screaming from office without an election.

There is a lot of potential in the 25th Amendment, filled with ifs, ands and buts, but it remains an underreported amendment, far less known than the handful of amendments that are popularly referenced.