Acting President Grassley?

From USA.gov:  

The U.S. Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 outline the presidential order of succession. The line of succession of cabinet officers is in the order of their agencies’ creation.

1. Vice President
2. Speaker of the House
3. President Pro Tempore of the Senate
4. Secretary of State

Hopefully, we all learned about that in school (unless you were one of the unfortunate young people subjected to Common Core). Fortunately, the U.S. line of succession has never gone past the level of vice president. If all goes according to schedule, the House will elect a speaker on Jan. 3, the election will be certified on Jan. 6, and Donald Trump and JD Vance will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025. 

But what if things don't go according to plan, and the House is caught up in a protracted battle to elect a new speaker? We could be staring down the possibility (albeit a remote one) of Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley becoming the acting president of the United States. 

If you're wondering why President-elect Trump came out with a ringing endorsement of Mike Johnson today, this could very well be the reason. 

The problem is the timing. A joint session of Congress is set to certify the 2024 election on Jan. 6. If there's no House Speaker, there may not be a vote. If there is no certification, Trump cannot be inaugurated as president. Nor can JD Vance be sworn in without that crucial ceremonial vote. With no speaker in the House, the presidency could fall to Chuck Grassley until the House, with a slim Republican majority, can get things sorted out. 

Crazy, right? It would be the cherry on top of the crazy 2024 election.

My Townhall colleague Katie Pavlich explained: 

But there are only two weeks between January 6 and January 20. If the House can't find a Speaker in time to get the election certified, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance cannot take office even though President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will leave their posts. 

With a non-functioning House, Trump, Vance and the House Speaker are out of the chain-of-command, which puts the Senate pro tempore in as acting president. On January 20, 2025, that will be Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. 

The speaker has two official duties on Jan. 6: selecting two tellers to read the votes and overseeing House debates about the certification. 

For Our VIPs: Trump’s Support of Mike Johnson Was the Right Move

“The country would be going into one big gray area,” Steve Smith, a professor of political science and global studies at Arizona State University, told Roll Call. “The one precedent that is clear and could help determine what happens is at the start of a new Congress, the election of the speaker is the first thing the House does.”

“Nothing else happens until the speaker is elected. It’s been that way since 1789 when the first Congress convened,” Smith said. “Now, that worked just fine for the first Congress. But that could prove problematic here.”

More from Roll Call: 

While there is no precedent in U.S. history to guide House members through such a scenario, they likely have the authority to, as Smith put it, “make up a precedent.”

And, should that be necessary, he said one option would be to reach an agreement under which “the clerk could organize the House and even allow for the Jan. 6 count to proceed — speaker or no speaker.”

Derek Muller, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School, said the Constitution gives the House the authority to organize itself, which would give members enough legal wiggle room to find a way out of what would be an unprecedented situation.

“They could elect an acting or temporary speaker, with a provision that the entire House would revisit the matter of a permanent speaker in X-number of days,” Muller said. 

The best-case scenario would be for Republicans to elect a speaker on Jan. 3 and worry about leadership fights after Trump and Vance are seated. However, with such a slim majority in the House, the chamber must find a way to unite behind Johnson (or someone else) without delay. Already, Rep. Thomas Massie has said he will not vote for Johnson, which means he can only afford to lose one more vote to avoid another circus. Recall that it took three weeks to elect a new speaker after Kevin McCarthy's ouster. Republicans — indeed, America — cannot afford a protracted speaker fight right now, which is likely why Trump is pushing for a clean vote to elect Johnson quickly. 

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