From Cabinet Secretary to Doomsday President: What is a Designated Survivor like?

WASHINGTON (AP) — They usually start their day as low-profile Cabinet secretaries. It will end this way too, God willing.

But when the rest of the government comes together for a major event, such as President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the designated survivor is pushed aside to ensure someone in the line of leadership succession remains alive.

Read more: How to watch Trump’s 2026 State of the Union

Choosing a fail-safe system in the event of a catastrophic event that wipes out everyone goes back to the Cold War. She was depicted in novels and an ABC series starring Kiefer Sutherland that aired from 2016 to 2019. When Trump addressed a joint session of Congress last March, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins was chosen as the designated survivor.

The president’s choice to sit this time has not yet been announced.

Taking on the role of designated survivor brings more adrenaline jolts, humbling thoughts about inadvertently vaulting into the presidency, and unimaginable tragedy — though the finer details don’t typically feature the high drama of fictional depiction, say those who’ve done it.

“It focuses your mind. It also reinforces your prayers that it doesn’t happen to you,” James Nicholson, who was Veterans Affairs secretary under President George W. Bush and a designated survivor during the 2006 State of the Union address, said of the prospect of becoming president after a catastrophic event.

“A kind of awakening”

The concept of designated survivor has long captivated people because it combines an inherent public fascination with danger with the romanticism of the “everyman” thrust into the presidency, said historian and journalist Garrett M. Graf.

“The idea that you’re just a random Cabinet official, and then something terrible happens, and all of a sudden, you’re president of the United States,” said Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the American Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest Dies.

Until the attacks of September 11, 2001, designated survivors had more control over where they went outside of Washington. President Bill Clinton’s secretary of energy, the late Bill Richardson, was selected in 2000 and simply moved a planned weekend trip to Oxford, Maryland, a waterfront town about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away, so that he could be there during the State of the Union address.

When Dan Glickman, Clinton’s agriculture secretary, was chosen during the 1997 State of the Union address, his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, was too far away, so he chose New York, where his daughter lived.

“I thought it was kind of exciting. But I wasn’t excited from a serious standpoint,” Glickman said. “I don’t think anyone even told me to be careful.”

Alberto Gonzalez, Bush’s attorney general, was the designated survivor during the 2007 State of the Union address. He said White House chief of staff Josh Bolten called a few days ago and offered him several options for where he could take shelter.

Gonzalez chose to be on the plane, arriving at what was then called Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to find “members of every major department and agency” there to ride with him. They carried thick folders stuffed with memos and protocol instructions, just in case.

He recalled a series of briefings that may have extended directly to Bush’s speech, which he watched from the air.

“During that time it suddenly hit me, ‘If something happened at the Capitol and everyone got killed, I would be president,'” Gonzalez said. “It’s kind of unsettling. And you wonder: Can I govern a wounded nation?”

This concept goes back decades

In his book “Raven Rock,” Graf details how the idea of ​​a designated survivor was formalized by the Carter and Reagan administrations amid fears that Soviet submarines off the Atlantic coast could launch nuclear missiles and obliterate Washington with just 10 minutes of warning.

Beginning in April 1980, the White House Military Office charged FEMA with ensuring succession. An aide was instructed to recommend which president should skip events when all potential successors are together outside the White House.

Officials are still preparing for a massive attack or disaster. The military helicopter that collided with a regional jet outside Reagan National Airport in January 2025 was in continuation of a government mission — training to keep the federal government running in the event of a disaster.

The first time a Cabinet member was unmasked outside of a presidential address to Congress was President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Education, Terrell Pell, in 1981. But Pell was not identified until later. Today, TV images from the House floor allow political junkies to find a missing Cabinet member within minutes.

“If this terrible thing happens, you will be well fed.”

Nicholson said Bush’s chief of staff, Andy Card, asked him a few weeks before the State of the Union address to be the designated survivor. It was a natural fit since his agency played an important role in the continuity of government activities due to the presence of numerous hospitals and clinics throughout the country.

Nicholson traveled by helicopter to a destination that was not revealed until he was in the air, and then sat in the command center, where he underwent briefing sessions before watching Bush’s speech.

He was served a “fantastic” dinner, prepared on site by staff from the White House, although he said he could not remember whether it was T-bone steak, prime rib or something similar. “It made you think that, at least if this terrible thing happened, you would get good food,” he said.

“The enormity of this job,” Nicholson said when he became president. “As you think about it, as remote as it is, this is something you might have to do.” Nicholson’s wife was present at the State of the Union address, meaning that if something happened, she could be among the victims, which added to the pressure.

When it was over, Nicholson was not asked to fill in the names of future survivors like Gonzalez on what to expect.

“We don’t have a club,” he laughed. “We must.”

Glickman recalls boarding an Air Force G-3 plane from Andrews accompanied by Secret Service agents, a military official and a series of advisers who were not part of his usual staff. A three-car convoy later took him from LaGuardia Airport to his daughter’s apartment near Union Square.

She wanted to invite others to watch the speech with them, but Glickman refused. “This was not a party,” he added.

It wasn’t all that serious. Glickman said he was told he didn’t need to dress up, so he didn’t wear a suit. The non-study instructions exempted him from reading summary books or memorizing security protocols.

After the speech, the Secret Service asked if Glickman wanted a ride to the airport. He declined, saying he planned to have dinner with his daughter. It was raining when the convoy left without him, making taxis scarce – and his sudden return to real life was particularly surprising.

“I was the most powerful man on Earth, in theory,” Glickman recalled joking at the time. “And then I can’t even get a taxi.”