If Trump has to quarantine for longer than currently expected, there will be duties he is unable to perform.
US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has tested positive for coronavirus. He and his wife Melania were already in quarantine after one of their advisers also tested positive, and although the president will have the best possible medical care, he’s 74, likely overweight, and generally in a higher-risk category.
Trump’s doctor said the president is well and is carrying on his duties from the White House. But earlier this year British prime minister Boris Johnson spent several weeks in intensive care after contracting Covid-19. Under Section 1, if a president dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the vice president becomes president.
Under Section 3, a president can temporarily hand over power to the vice president by sending a written declaration to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives stating that he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush invoked Section 3 during medical procedures.
After vice president Mike Pence, the next in the line of succession, if both Trump and Pence are incapacitated, is the speaker of the House, in this case, Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
Section 4 is more controversial and has never been used in US political history. It states that the vice president and “a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide,” can declare the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” against his will, by sending a written declaration to the president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives.
The fact that Trump’s positive test comes just a month before the presidential election, in which he is also a candidate, is another complication for the US to sort out.
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