United States presidential line of succession

The **United States presidential line of succession** is the order in which government officials replace the president of the United States, if the president leaves office before an elected successor is inaugurated. If the president dies, resigns or is removed from the office, the vice president becomes president for the rest of the term. If the vice president is unable to serve, the Speaker of the House acts as president.

## Previous lines

The United States Constitution says that the vice president of the United States is the person who will replace the president if the president is not able to continue. In 1868, during the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Wade was the leader of the Senate, who nearly became president, as Johnson was found not guilty by one vote. Johnson had previously served as the vice president for Abraham Lincoln, and became president after Lincoln’s assassination. As a result, there was no vice president during Johnson’s presidency.

In 1886, after the death of Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks, Congress passed a law that took out the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives from the line of succession. The new person behind the vice president in line was Secretary of State, followed by other Cabinet members.  The leaders of the Senate and House were restored to the line of succession by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.

## Present line of succession

Below is the line of succession for the president of the United States under Donald Trump:

|<abbr title="Number in line">Number</abbr>|Office|Name|colspan="2"|Party||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Vice President|JD Vance|style="background: "||Republican|
|2|Speaker of the House of Representatives|Mike Johnson|style="background: "||Republican|
|3|President pro tempore of the Senate|Chuck Grassley|style="background: "||Republican|
|4|Secretary of State|Marco Rubio|style="background: "||Republican|
|5|Secretary of the Treasury|Scott Bessent|style="background: "||Republican|
|6|Secretary of Defence|Pete Hegseth|style="background: "||Republican|
|7|Attorney General|Pam Bondi|style="background: "||Republican|
|8|Secretary of the Interior|Doug Burgum|style="background: "||Republican|
|9|Secretary of Agriculture|Brooke Rollins|style="background: "||Republican|
|10|Secretary of Commerce|Howard Lutnick|style="background: "||Republican|
|11|Secretary of Labor|Lori Chavez-DeRemer|style="background: "||Republican|
|12|Secretary of Health and Human Services|Robert F. Kennedy Jr.|style="background: "||Independent|
|13|Secretary of Housing and Urban Development|Scott Turner|style="background: "||Republican|
|14|Secretary of Transportation|Sean Duffy|style="background: "||Republican|
|15|Secretary of Energy|Chris Wright|style="background: "||Republican|
|16|Secretary of Education|Linda McMahon|style="background: "||Republican|
|17|Secretary of Veterans Affairs|Doug Collins|style="background: "||Republican|
|18|Secretary of Homeland Security|Kristi Noem|style="background: "||Republican|

## Other websites

- Ask Gleaves: Presidential Succession
- Presidential Succession Act of 1792,  1 Stat. 239
- “Presidential Line of Succession Examined” , September 20 2003
- Presidential line of succession at various times in history