If Trump dies before taking office, who will be the President?

Wouldn’t Pence be the next in line if that was to happen?
At least that was what we were taught in school.

Should be Pence.

The constitution does not say what happens if the candidate is incapacitated before the Electoral College votes in December or the votes are certified by Congress on January 6.

Actually, they’re not required to choose Trump in December regardless of whether he’s above ground or not.

After the votes are certified, the law kicks in making the Vice President-elect next in line.

Link

Another link

I don’t believe there’s any established protocol for this scenario.

My guess would be once the current president’s term ends then the current vice-president (in this case Joe Biden) assumes office as acting president until something more permanent can be figured out.

Well, when Kennedy died, Johnson became president, until the next election.

But Kennedy was the president and Johnson was the vice-president. That’s not the case here.

There is not a rule spelled out for the time before January 6 (when Congress certifies the Electoral College vote)

As I write this, I realize the orderly thing would be for the Electoral College to choose dead Donald Trump and Congress to certify the result.

On January 9th his Constitutional successor Mike Pence would be inaugurated.

As president elects get older and older, I think this should be addressed.

@chyna True. Looking at “old” presidents in the past, FDR died at 63 and LBJ left office at 61. Yowza, that is not old.

Age was not an issue this year while Hillary and Trump are 69 and 70.

Granted both FDR and LBJ had significant health issues. Honestly, considering how frail he really was, and with the stresses he had as president, I’m a little amazed that FDR lasted as long as he did.