Presidential Succession

For John, BLUF:  All theoretical stuff for George to teach his students.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Presidential Line of Succession

I have friends, and at least one relative, who can't wait for Mr Trump to leave office, immediately, if not sooner.  And, of course, there are those Democrats who are not only passionately wishing for it, but actively working for it— People like Rep John Lewis and Rep Maxine Waters and Rep Nancy Pelosi.  Then there are the wafflers, like Sen E Warren.  They want to give a full throttle "YES" to the idea but their common sense keeps pulling them back.

Here, via Wikipedia is the current order of succession:

No.	Office	Current officer
1	Vice President	Mike Pence (R)
2	Speaker of the House of Representatives	Paul Ryan (R)
3	President pro tempore of the Senate	Orrin Hatch (R)
4	Secretary of State	Rex Tillerson (R)
5	Secretary of the Treasury	Steven Mnuchin (R)
6	Secretary of Defense	James Mattis (I)
7	Attorney General	Jeff Sessions (R)
8	Secretary of the Interior	Ryan Zinke (R)
—	Secretary of Agriculture	Mike Young (D)[a]
9	Secretary of Commerce	Wilbur Ross (R)
—	Secretary of Labor	Ed Hugler (I)[a]
10	Secretary of Health and Human Services	Tom Price (R)
11	Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	Ben Carson (R)
—	Secretary of Transportation	Elaine Chao (R)[b]
12	Secretary of Energy	Rick Perry (R)
13	Secretary of Education	Betsy DeVos (R)
14	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	David Shulkin (I)
15	Secretary of Homeland Security	John F. Kelly (I)

[a]  This listing assumes that only acting officers whose prior appointment required Senate confirmation are eligible for the line of succession.

[b]  Not a natural-born citizen (acquired U.S. citizenship by naturalization) and thus ineligible for the Presidency.

The list does raise questions, such as how did a foreigner get on the Cabinet, given that President Trump is proclaimed by the Media to be such a nativist?

As I pointed out to my Brother, the sign the Democrats are going to actually make a run at President Trump will be an effort to force Vice President Pence to resign.♠  That is how they did it last time.  And, it will give time to get someone else brought in as Vice President under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, Section 2.

Isn't there a TV Show about the kind of issue, Designated Survivor, or some such.  There is apparently a whole raft of fictional considerations of the issue of Presidential Succession.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Let's face it.  While President Trump is a New York City Progressive with Libertarian/Conservative leanings, Vice President Mike Pence is a real conservative and likely to act like one, bringing his talents in politics and government to bear on the problems at hand, thus making it even more difficult for the Democrats to achieve their goals.  And, a President Pence might point out the Antonio Gramsci like progress of the Democrats.