Who exactly can fill that empty chair…
By now, we all know that not only have there been two assassination attempts against Pres. Trump, a number of his nominees for various cabinet departments and presidential appointees have been threatened with death, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
That’s exactly why more than a few MAGA conservatives are begging Pres. Trump to make his nominees that require approval from the US Senate, go ahead and utilize the legal right of every president to assign the same (at least temporarily) by using recess appointment.
Sadly, I believe that the aforementioned murder threats are just a portent of things to come. Between the mullahs in Iran and the TDS here in America, they won’t be happy until they kill as many America-Firsters as possible.
With that in mind, here’s exactly who is (and isn’t) in the official presidential line of succession, both in-fact and those nominated, all of whom need approval by the US Senate, except for the Vice President, House Speaker and President Pro Tempore (I’ll only list the top seven in-line);
- Vice President JD Vance
- Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (Provided the GOP members of the House don’t vote him out)
- President Pro Tempore of the Senate Chuck Grassley (That’s right, the Pres. Pro-Tem isn’t the Senate Majority Leader, but the longest serving senator from the majority party. BTW, Grassley has been a US Senator for over 42 years.)
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio
- Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent
- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
- Attorney General Pam Bondi
In spite of much media coverage, here are just a few that Pres. Trump has named to certain official positions or special fact-finding committees that aren’t in-line for the presidency;
- Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
- Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller
- Border Czar Tom Homan (Border Czar isn’t a cabinet position, but a presidential special appointment assigned a specific task)
- Dept. of Government of Government Efficiency Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (DOGE falls into the same category as Border Czar)
- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard*
- CIA Director John Ratcliffe*
*Requires approval of US Senate