Trump Leaves Succession Instructions for VP JD Vance Amid Assassination Attempts

NEW YORK, May 14. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has left Vice President JD Vance precise instructions in the event he has to succeed him during the second term, said Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the US president and senior director for counterterrorism in the National Security Council of the White House. "There is a letter in the drawer in the Resolute Desk that is addressed to the vice president should something happen to him (Trump - TASS)," Gorka said in an interview with the New York Post. "We have protocols, trust me. Not ones I can discuss, but we have protocols." The US leader has been the target of three assassination attempts. The first two occurred in 2024 during his election campaign. In July, he was shot at during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Two months later, another assailant was detained with a weapon at the Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump was staying. The third assassination attempt took place on April 25, 2026, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., during the annual reception of the White House Correspondents’ Association, which was attended by the entire top leadership of the US administration.