White House counterterrorism official Sebastian Gorka revealed this week that President Trump has already prepared detailed succession instructions for Vice President JD Vance in the event something catastrophic were to happen during his second term — a striking admission that immediately fueled new discussion about presidential security and foreign threats.
Speaking with Miranda Devine on the “Pod Force One” podcast, Gorka said Trump keeps a letter addressed to Vance inside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office outlining what should happen if the president were somehow incapacitated or killed.
“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.
While declining to discuss specifics, Gorka emphasized that the administration has established extensive contingency procedures.
“We have protocols, trust me,” he added. “Not ones I can discuss, but we have protocols.”
The comments came as Trump prepared for a major diplomatic trip to China, where he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping to discuss trade tensions, artificial intelligence, military competition, and broader geopolitical disputes between Washington and Beijing. The visit has generated renewed concern among some Trump allies about the president’s safety given escalating tensions with foreign adversaries.
Gorka argued that Trump’s aggressive posture toward China has effectively made him the primary obstacle to Beijing’s long-term ambitions on the world stage.
“He alone stands between them and world domination,” Gorka claimed, adding that foreign powers theoretically have “every reason in the world to take him out.”
He then raised a chilling hypothetical scenario involving delayed poisoning or biological exposure.
“They could just put something in the air that makes him sick 30 days later,” Gorka said, though he quickly clarified that he personally believes Trump remains “very safe.”
The remarks fit into a broader pattern of heightened security concerns surrounding Trump since surviving multiple assassination attempts during and after the 2024 campaign cycle.
The most infamous occurred during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a rooftop position before being killed by Secret Service snipers. Trump was struck in the ear during the attack, producing one of the defining images of the election cycle.
A second attempt came weeks later when Ryan Routh allegedly positioned himself near Trump’s Florida golf course with a rifle before being spotted by Secret Service agents. Authorities arrested him before he could fire a shot. Routh was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
According to Vice President JD Vance, Trump personally called him shortly after that second incident.
“JD, you’re not going to believe this, but they tried to do it again,” Vance later recalled Trump telling him.
More recently, authorities say another suspect, Cole Allen, attempted to approach Trump armed during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April before being stopped by Secret Service personnel. Allen has pleaded not guilty to multiple federal charges, including attempted assassination of the president.
The administration has also repeatedly pointed toward Iran as a major threat. Earlier this year, Trump publicly stated he had left “very firm instructions” ordering overwhelming retaliation if Tehran ever succeeded in assassinating him.
“If anything ever happens, we’re going to blow the whole country up,” Trump said during a January interview discussing Iranian threats.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later confirmed that an Iranian official tied to an earlier assassination plot against Trump was killed during a U.S. military operation known as Operation Epic Fury.
Against that backdrop, Gorka’s revelation about a private letter to JD Vance takes on additional weight. While succession planning has always existed inside presidential administrations, hearing a senior White House official openly discuss a written contingency plan sitting inside the Resolute Desk immediately adds another layer of gravity to the already intense security environment surrounding Trump’s presidency.
