The presidential line of succession is basically toast

| 9:16 am EDT April 12, 2018
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We’re often asked what will happen to the presidency if Donald Trump and Mike Pence both end up getting ousted in the Trump-Russia scandal. We’ve made clear that Congress would likely oust one of them, then force the other to nominate a new VP agreeable to both parties, before ousting the other. It’s how Gerald Ford became president despite never having been anywhere in the line of succession. We don’t expect the line of presidential succession to come into play this time around either. And that’s a good thing, because the line of succession is now basically toast.

Next in line after Trump and Pence is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who just announced that he’s quitting at the end of his term. Next in line after that is Speaker Pro Tempore Orrin Hatch, who previously announced that he’s also quitting at the end of his term, and appears to be showing signs of senility. After that is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was just fired. Throw in questions about whether Ryan will actually finish his term, and it gets even messier.

If Trump and Pence got into a fistfight tomorrow and both fell off a cliff, Paul Ryan would become President of the United States, even though he just announced that he’s quitting Congress. If Ryan does resign from Congress, and then Trump and Pence fall off the cliff, Hatch would become President, even though most of the time he can’t remember what he’s talking about. In fact Hatch might have to decline it, considering the condition he’s in. That would bring us to… no one.

Next in line would be Secretary of State, and the United States does not currently have one of those. Rex Tillerson is already officially out the door, with his employment having ended on March 31st. We don’t think the current acting Secretary of State John J. Sullivan would be eligible in the line of succession, because he’s not technically Secretary of State. So that would bring us to the next person in the line of succession, the Secretary of the Treasury. That’s right, we’d be looking at President Steve Mnuchin.

Again, there’s a reason why the presidential line of succession has never even reached as far as Speaker of the House. We saw VP Spiro Agnew pushed aside, with Richard Nixon then nominating widely liked Congressman Gerald Ford as his new VP, and the Senate confirming Ford in bipartisan fashion, only for Nixon to then be pushed out. We think the same thing will play out if Donald Trump and Mike Pence are both ousted in scandal. But in a reminder of how unstable the U.S. government has become under the illegitimate and scandal-plagued Trump, the presidential line of succession is vanishing by the day. Support Palmer Report.