Presidents, when they depart from office, often leave a note for their successor. Donald Trump says he’s left a note for his vice president, JD Vance, in case he dies in office.
At least, that’s according to the longtime Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka.
In a podcast interview with the New York Post this week, Gorka revealed the existence of such secret instructions.
“Gorka, who has led the Trump administration’s counterterrorism strategy, told The Post’s Miranda Devine in a new episode, out Wednesday, that he has no concerns about the 47th president being targeted in an assassination attempt by a foreign adversary,” the Post reported. “But the counterterrorism czar noted that there are rules for the succession that would be followed if China — or another malign actor — were able to ‘take him out.'”
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Gorka made the claim in the same week that Trump is visiting China.
“There is a letter in the drawer in the Resolute Desk that is addressed to the vice president, should something happen to him,” Gorka said on the Post podcast. “We have protocols, trust me. Not ones I can discuss, but we have protocols.”
Sebastian Gorka reveals on ‘Pod Force One’ Trump left Vance succession instructions should he be assassinated https://t.co/VCHSeFHIVb pic.twitter.com/KaKtsO4Xjm
— New York Post (@nypost) May 13, 2026
Gorka, in the interview, speculated that China, while Trump is visiting, could try “putting something in the air that makes him sick 30 days later.” But he added that “‘I have no fear at all of them doing something.”
“The idea that you do something that undermines your recognition goes against what they wish to have,” Gorka added.
Gorka served as a White House aide early on in the first Trump presidency, before leaving government and spending the next several years as a conservative radio host and media figure. He returned to government in Trump’s second presidency.
Trump himself said earlier this year that he had left “very firm instructions” for Iran to be “blown up,” in the event that Iran succeeded in assassinating him.
“I’ve left notification,” Trump said in the January interview. “[If] anything ever happens, we’re going to blow the – the whole country is going to get blown up.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
