What Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis means for the election, his presidency, and the Supreme Court opening

• The US is in uncharted territory. President Donald Trump, the most powerful man on the planet, has tested positive for COVID-19, a disease that's killed more than 1 million people around the world and over 200,000 in the US alone.
• Trump's diagnosis raises a slew of questions, especially since it comes 32 days before the general election.
• We've answered some of the most consequential questions below, including what happens if the president dies? Will Election Day be postponed? Who's running the country right now? What does this mean for national security?

We are in uncharted territory.

President Donald Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis is unlike anything that's happened in modern history. And the implications are huge now that the most powerful person on the planet has contracted a virus that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide — and more than 200,000 in the United States alone.

Making matters even more complicated, Trump is up for reelection against his Democratic rival Joe Biden in just 32 days. Voters across the country have begun returning their ballots amid one of the most chaotic presidential campaigns ever.

There are a lot of questions right now. Luckily, there are also many answers. Here's Insider's breakdown of everything you need to know.

What happens if the president dies?

According to the Presidential Succession Act, if Trump were to die, Vice President Mike Pence would take over as commander in chief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is next in line and would serve as acting president if both Trump and Pence died or were unable to serve.

After Pelosi, the presidential line of succession is as follows: Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the president pro tempore of the Senate; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; Defense Secretary Mark Esper; and Attorney General William Barr.

After Barr comes Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt; Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue; Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross; Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia; Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar; Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson; Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos; Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie; and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.

Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao is a naturalized American citizen and therefore is not in the presidential line of succession.

Who's running the country right now?

Trump. He remains in full control of all powers of the presidency even as he grapples with what the White House described as "mild," cold-like COVID-19 symptoms.

If Trump could not discharge his duties, Section 3 of the 25th Amendment would allow him to temporarily transfer his powers to Pence.

If Trump became incapacitated and could not himself transfer his power, leaders of executive-branch departments or Congress could invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment and vote to temporarily transfer presidential powers to Pence.

"The possibility of medical complications for a man of 74 are considerable and beg the question of whether the 25th Amendment might have to be invoked," said Ross Baker, a political-science professor at Rutgers University.

It has happened before. In 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush invoked Section 3 before going under anesthesia for colonoscopies, transferring his presidential power for a few hours to Vice President Dick Cheney.

What does Trump testing positive for COVID-19 mean for national security?

Trump is the commander in chief, and there has been no transfer of power to Pence under the 25th Amendment. The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told reporters on Friday that Trump was conducting business as usual.

But national-security experts have said there are significant risks associated with the president's diagnosis.

For one, it could present a window of opportunity for hostile foreign powers like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea to escalate their aggression on a geopolitical front. China is looking to ramp up its presence in the South China Sea, and tensions are high with its southern neighbor, India, amid a border dispute.

Iran, meanwhile, has been itching for revenge against the US since Trump in January ordered the assassination of its top military general, Qassem Soleimani. A Politico report weeks ago said Iranian officials were weighing a plot to kill the US ambassador in South Africa.

Trump's diagnosis also raises questions about the command of the US's nuclear arsenal. The president is followed around by a military official carrying a briefcase whose contents the president can use to authorize a nuclear attack if he's away from command centers like the White House Situation Room. The decision to launch a nuclear attack may have to be made in seconds, and it's unclear whether Trump would be able to do so if his symptoms progress.

The War Zone reported that in the event of a security threat to the president, he and top officials would gather in the Situation Room, which may not have enough space for people to stay socially distanced. In the event of a more serious threat to the presidential mansion, Trump, his family members, and the Cabinet would go underground to a secured bunker, which The War Zone described as a "tight, fully enclosed environment, with the top leadership of the country working shoulder to shoulder."

The number of officials in the West Wing and the national-security apparatus raises questions about who else in the White House and executive agencies could be infected. That's especially true given a Daily Beast report on Friday that cited aides as saying that the White House's testing protocols were full of loopholes, that not everyone is routinely tested, and that not all test results may be accurate.

What happens if a presidential or vice-presidential candidate appears on ballots but couldn't serve if elected?

Trump's illness and his proximity to Pence and Biden at Tuesday night's debate in Cleveland raise this awkward question.

The Democratic and Republican national committees have procedures to replace presidential and vice-presidential nominees who die before Election Day, the New York University professors Joshua Tucker and Richard Pildes said in a Washington Post series first published in May.

However, with a month to go until Election Day, ballots with Trump's name as the Republican nominee have already been printed and sent to millions of voters, and more than 2 million Americans have cast their votes.

If Trump were to die between now and Election Day, it would likely be too late for ballots to be reprinted and resent to voters, even if the RNC selected a replacement in time.

According to the Constitution, Americans don't directly vote for the president and have no constitutional right to do so. Rather, when voters go to the polls, they vote for who the electors representing their state should select when the Electoral College convenes in December.

If a state votes for a candidate and that person dies, it could cause serious problems for the Electoral College process, since state laws require presidential electors to be selected through a popular vote.

Neither the Constitution nor federal law actually requires states to appoint their electors via a popular vote — all federal law mandates is that they select who their electors will vote for on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which is Election Day.

If Trump were to die and the RNC were to select a formal replacement, state legislatures may not be able to appoint a separate slate of electors to vote for Trump's replacement after Election Day if the state voted for Trump. According to legal experts with the nonpartisan National Task Force on Election Crises, that's because the federal statute requires states to appoint their electors no later than the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Under the Constitution, state legislatures do, however, have the ability to directly appoint electors if the state "fails" to make a choice for president on Election Day.

The meaning of "fails" has not been tested in court, and it's unclear whether a candidate's death before Election Day would amount to a failure that could allow state legislatures to override the results of a popular election.

If a court granted a state legislature that power, it could lead to even more problems and trigger a dispute if it tried to award its electoral votes to a different candidate than the one who won the popular vote and had been certified the winner by the state's governor.

Could Election Day be postponed?

Most likely not.

Only Congress has the legal power to move Election Day, and beyond Trump's calls this summer to do that because of the pandemic, there's been virtually no discussion of or interest in postponing the election.

Pushing Election Day back could also result in a logistical nightmare, since many Americans are already being asked to vote in ways they're unfamiliar with in light of the pandemic.

Changing Election Day could also disenfranchise millions of voters, given that over 2 million people have already cast their ballots, according to the US Elections Project.

Will the Senate move forward with Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings?

So far, the answer appears to be yes.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said on Friday that his panel would proceed with her confirmation hearing on October 12.

Multiple Democrats have said that for the health and safety of lawmakers Barrett's confirmation schedule should be postponed. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted on Friday morning that he had spoken to the president and that the Senate planned to move forward.

"Just finished a great phone call with @POTUS," McConnell wrote. "He's in good spirits and we talked business — especially how impressed Senators are with the qualifications of Judge Barrett. Full steam ahead with the fair, thorough, timely process that the nominee, the Court, & the country deserve."

Barrett, who contracted and recovered from COVID-19 earlier this summer, tested negative on Friday, the White House said. Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said Barrett was last with the president on Saturday and is tested daily.

"She is following CDC guidance and best practices, including social distancing, wearing face coverings, and frequently washes hands," Deere said.

So far, at least two people who attended Trump's September 26 announcement of Barrett's nomination, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and University of Notre Dame President John Jenkins, have tested positive for COVID-19.

What if Trump — win or lose in November — resigns the presidency before Inauguration Day for health reasons or otherwise?

If Trump for any reason resigned the presidency before Inauguration Day on January 20, Pence would immediately become president. A president may resign for any reason, including health considerations.

Of course, an ex-President Trump would not be gone from the headlines. He would also be likely to face a slew of legal problems, and some politicos imagine an unlikely but still plausible situation where Trump loses reelection but resigns before Inauguration Day, allowing Pence — the new, if very temporary, president — to issue Trump a blanket pardon.