This thread poses the same question, but for a different scenario. Assume that Trump is elected to a second term, and Pence (or whoever else he happened to have chosen as his running mate) is forced to leave the office of vice president some time into the term. This could be due to death, ill health, or resignation—for the purposes of this question it doesn’t really matter. Who does Trump appoint to replace the outgoing VP? At this point, Trump will be a lame-duck president, so he no longer needs to select someone “electable”. How would the removal of this restriction influence his choice?
Of course, his nominee would still need to be confirmed by Congress. Currently, the Senate has a Republican majority and the House has a Democratic majority, though I understand either of these could conceivably change for Trump’s next term. Who would Trump pick if there is no change in control of the two bodies? Who would Trump pick if both bodies end up in Republican hands, granting him much more leeway (but maybe not carte blanche)? Would Trump attempt to engage in blatant cronyism or even nepotism, and to what extent would a Republican Congress indulge this?
Doesn’t it? I checked Wikipedia just now and it says that, generally speaking, lame-duck status can be acquired by dint of “a term limit which prevents the official from running for that particular office again”. If this isn’t how the term is typically used in American politics, then please disregard my usage of it and mentally substitute whatever term you use for officials that are ineligible for re-election.
ETA: I see that in the “United States” section of the aforementioned Wikipedia article, in America the term is typically restricted to presidents serving between the November elections and the inauguration of their successor.
Seeing how the present House would never confirm anyone for VP that President Trump really wanted, an “interim VP” would all there would ever be until President Trump’s second term was over. The question is if President Trump “left the scene” for whatever reason, would this "interim VP become President or would it go to the Speaker?
Why would the House allow Trump to install a VP? Think about it: if there’s no VP and something happened to Trump, we’d get President Nancy. And there’d be no one to break ties in the Senate. And there’d be no strong incumbent to run against in 2024. It’d be foolish to grant this boon to this administration. I know it’d violate norms and set a terrible precedent, but I don’t know why only the GOP gets to play hardball.
But, as much as I admire how Pelosi has handled a lot of this mess, I do admit they’d cave without enormous concessions in some “we go high” bullshit. And Trump would pick someone who was most necessary at that moment in time and most disposable in the future.
I suspect Mitch would have a much, much stronger fight over VP than Nancy. He’d want a strong, competent VP to smooth legislation/executive stuff, have that tie breaker vote, have that 2024 candidate. And Trump wouldn’t want competent because competent might mean he gets 25th when he next covfefes. Pence ain’t a snitch: would a replacement be one?
Maybe Graham. He’s enough of a suck up but not ambitious himself.
Lame duck means someone completing their term after a successor has been elected. Some people have been using it to mean anyone who is serving their last term - if that is by term limits or by announcing they will not seek re-election.
That latter, incorrect usage could be the source of confusion.
Trump can call anyone he wants an “interim VP” but the Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act are about as clear as legal talk can be about who’s in line.
So the orange terror names Ivanka as interim veep and House Dems angrily sue to block the appointment. Suit goes to SCOTUS. They’ll consider the case in a year or five. Right.
I’d say anyone who cannot face the voters again is a lame duck. So I would call any second term president a lame duck throughout that term.
There is no such thing as an interim vice president. If the vice president dies or resigns, the president can nominate someone who would take office after each house of Congress votes to approve. Until and unless that approval happens, there is no vice president.
Emphasis added. The plain text makes it clear that a new VP does not take office until he or she is confirmed, and any “interim VP” would not be part of the line of succession.
Going beyond that, an interim Vice President would not have any of the other powers of the office, such as casting a tie-breaking vote in the Senate or protecting the space-time continuum.
There is nothing in the Constitution to support the idea of an “interim veep”.
Anyone DJT appointed to that role would have no power or authority at all.
As much as SCOTUS may be viewed to be politicized there is nothing to indicate they would go so far off the reservation as to support such a cockamamie idea.
The Constitution is clear on the process. There is no way to bypass the House in this process. It would go nowhere and Pelosi would be second in line for the remainder of DJT’s term, unless the D’s lost the House in the 2022 midterms.
Are those points supposed to discourage a “can-do” executive? If you can do what you want with no possibility of being bothered for a couple years, why fret? POTUS names interim veep who presides over Senate. Dem senators walk out in protest… and are grabbed by The Golden One’s gestapo as damn disloyal subversives. Disloyalty will not be tolerated. Power? Authority? Mao was right. “Political power flows from the barrel of a gun.” Who controls federal authority and power now? Who enforces judicial decisions?
