One chair inside the U.S. Capitol will be empty Tuesday.
The cabinet member who typically occupies it will be nowhere near the building or its surrounding area as Donald Trump delivers his joint address to Congress.
He or she will watch the speech from afar, representing the doomsday president in waiting, a title informally known as the "designated survivor."
Who is the designated survivor?
One person is selected to sit out high-profile events like the State of the Union, inaugurations, and presidential speeches to joint sessions of Congress to preserve the Constitutional line of succession to the presidency in the event of a cataclysmic event.
This person would assume control if the president, vice president, speaker of the House and all other cabinet officers in the presidential line of succession were incapacitated.
Who picks the designated survivor?
There is no official protocol outlining how the administration is to select a designated survivor, at least not that has been made public anyway.
Candidates in the presidential line of succession as one of the 15 cabinet secretaries of an executive department must meet two basic eligibility requirements: they must be a native-born American citizen and at least 35 years old.
Chris Lu, who served as White House Cabinet Secretary for President Barack Obama and helped select seven designated survivors, discussed other factors that were considered in a 2023 social media thread. They included selecting someone who is already traveling outside of the Washington D.C. area during the speech; someone who is not directly associated to the topics of the issues mentioned in the speech; someone who has not already been asked to serve as designated survivor; someone who has not served in Congress.
What is the presidential order of succession?
Below is the presidential order of succession in the event the president of the United States becomes incapacitated, dies, resigns, is unable to hold office or is removed from office, per the Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.
- Vice President
- Speaker of the House
- President Pro Tempore of the Senate
- Secretary of State
- Secretary of the Treasury
- Secretary of Defense
- Attorney General
- Secretary of the Interior
- Secretary of Agriculture
- Secretary of Commerce
- Secretary of Labor
- Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
- Secretary of Transportation
- Secretary of Energy
- Secretary of Education
- Secretary of Veterans Affairs
- Secretary of Homeland Security
When is the designated survivor chosen?
Previous designated survivors have said they were informed of their role days or weeks before the event was to take place. They are not revealed publicly until during or after the event.
Where is the designated survivor?
The designated survivor watches the speech from a secure location, which prior to the Sept. 11 2001 attacks was occasionally of their own choosing.
John Block, Ronald Reagan's agricultural secretary, carried out his role as designated survivor in 1986 from a villa in Jamaica.
Dan Glickman, Bill Clinton’s agriculture secretary, served as designated survivor in 1997 at his daughter's New York City apartment alongside Secret Service members.
Bill Richardson, Clinton's energy secretary, moved up a planned 2000 weekend trip with his wife to Oxford, Maryland so he’d be there as designated survivor during the State of the Union.
Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush’s attorney general, was designated survivor in 2007 while in flight, departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Who was the first designated survivor?
Selecting a failsafe that has become informally known as a designated survivor dates to the late 1950s during the Cold War amid the threat of the Soviets targeting Washington D.C. with nuclear weapons. A designated survivor was not publicly acknowledged by name until 1981 when education secretary Terrel Bell was not in attendance for President Ronald Reagan's joint address to Congress.
Who was the last designated survivor?
A designated survivor was not selected for Donald Trump's inauguration in January. The last person to carry out the role was Miguel Cardona, the former Secretary of Education under former President Joe Biden, in March 2024 during the State of the Union address.
Which position is most commonly selected as designated survivor?
The most common secretary to serve as designated survivor since 1984 is the secretary of the interior, which was been selected seven times, according to The American Presidency Project by the University of California.
Who has been designated survivor for Donald Trump?
Here are the designated survivors selected during Donald Trump's first term, according to The American Presidency Project:
- 2017 -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin
- 2018 -- Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue
- 2019 -- Secretary of Energy Rick Perry
- 2020 -- Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt
Has a designated survivor ever become president?
Only Kiefer Sutherland, the actor whose character became president in the television series aptly named "Designated Survivor."
The Trump administration has directed a “pause” to U.S. assistance to Ukraine after a disastrous Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week.
