PoliticoDonald Trump’s coronavirus infection highlights gaps in 25th Amendment, raising questions of succession
- Questions are swirling about what happens if President Donald Trump, a man not known for his probity or transparency, becomes incapacitated
- Rules governing a temporary transfer of power remain anything but clear, with sweeping implications for American national security
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Kyle Cheney, Daniel Lippman and Nahal Toosi on politico.com on October 3, 2020.
Only later would the “personal and secret” agreement between the two men be disclosed to the public – but it formed the basis for the oft-discussed, and seldom-invoked 25th Amendment, proposed after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and finally ratified in 1967.
“[W]hat must be clearly understood,” Nixon would later write about his understanding with Eisenhower, is that any such deal was “only as good as the will of the parties to keep them”. He worried that “jealousies and rivalries can develop within an administration which could completely destroy such an agreement”.
Sixty-two years after Eisenhower’s letter, another American leader is in hospital, and the circumstances around his condition are equally murky. His doctor insists he is well, while anonymous officials whisper to reporters that he might not be.
Questions are swirling about what happens if President Donald Trump, a man not known for his probity or transparency, becomes incapacitated. To a large extent, Covid-19 remains a mysterious disease, with uncertain long-term consequences and a penchant for taking sudden, violent lurches for the worse in its hosts.