Trump’s cunning plan to save his skin by delaying the election will not work. Instead, America will find themselves acting out a horrible episode of ‘Designated Survivor’ where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin becomes President.
At least he’s not Trump
Trump might think delaying the election will save him, but it won’t. The U.S. Constitution outlines that Trump’s Presidential term is up on January 21st, 2021, and that term will end whether there is an election or not. If no election takes place before that date, the new President will be determined from the line of succession. As soon as Trump understands this, he will go back to simply claiming the election is illegitimate.
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Just in case, however, the Presidential line of succession should be on everyone’s mind. Although, to be fair, no one in the line of succession could possibly be less competent at being President than Trump, with the exception of Betsy DeVos. Yes, Betsy Devos. Don’t worry, she is only 16th in line. We would need to suffer an apocalypse of major proportions before she gets to be President.
The current line of succession remains pretty scary, however, as the first two in line are already disqualified:
1st in line of succession is Vice President Mike Pence. His term ends on the same day as Trump’s, so he will not be taking over.
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2nd in line is Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, but without an election, she is disqualified. Pelosi’s term ends on the same day as Trump, leaving her post vacant. The next guy in line for Speaker of the House , Steny Hoyer, is also up for re-election. Without an election, it will take some serious 3D Chess moves to figure things out.
President Pro Tempore of the Senate Chuck Grassley is 3rd in the line of succession. He is the longest serving member of the Senate from the majority party. If the election is postponed, Senator Grassley would be sworn in as President on inauguration day. This is not the worst scenario, especially as Grassley is sick of Trump’s shit and has declared he will block further nominees until Trump explains why he keeps firing the Inspector Generals. On the other hand, Grassley has been swayed by conspiracy theories and doesn’t seem to mind white nationalists. The main problem with this is that Grassley is 86 years old and might be exposed to Covid-19 at any moment. So, if Senator Grassley is too ill or no longer alive on January 21st, 2020, the Presidency goes to the next in line.
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4th in the line of succession is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. On the one hand, Pompeo has testified (albeit vaguely) that the Russian bounties are a thing and that Russia is a threat to America, AND that he has actually spoken to Russia about them. On the other hand, he is been up to his neck in Trump’s swamp.
Yikes! Happily waiting in the wings as 5th in the line of succession is the creepy Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (shudder). Does he have something up his sleeve?
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Trump may figure out a way to delay the election, but he will not be able to delay leaving the White House unless there is an election. Someone needs to explain this to him. The whole thing is a constitutional crisis in the making, not that Trump cares about that, but everyone else hopefully does.
