If you were writing a novel, it would be impossible to come up with a story line that is stranger than what we have seen so far in 2020. However, there IS a bizarre situation that would be POSSIBLE, even if its not probable
We would all love to see Trump removed from office, but (deep down) we really don't anything awful to happen to the guy.
Consider this, though. What would happen if Trump DIED before the election?
As crazy as it may seem, something similar actually happened once in our history.
It's an awkward but reasonable inquiry. The peaceful, orderly transfer of power is a defining trait of a working democracy, but the death of a candidate could throw a wrench in that process. It's happened once before in the United States in 1872.
That's when Horace Greeley joined a group of Republican dissenters who were against then-president Ulysses S. Grant's reelection, and formed the Liberal Republican Party. The party nominated Greeley for president.
Greeley gained more than 40 percent of the popular vote, but before the Electoral College met, Greeley died. Three electors pledged their votes for him anyway; other electors cast their Greeley votes for minor candidates instead. When the ballots went to Congress, lawmakers passed a measure declaring the Greeley votes invalid and certified the win for Grant. In the end, Grant was reelected with 286 electoral votes.
So what this means is the repercussions of a candidate's death depend primarily on when it occurs. And at some stages in the election process, it's not really clear what would happen.
If a candidate dies before the general election but after they've secured their party's nomination, it's a relatively simple fix: The deceased candidate's party picks a replacement (who may or may not be the vice presidential candidate from the ticket), and that replacement is on the ballot on Election Day. Both the Republican and the Democratic parties have rules about how their parties would fill the vacancy.
If a candidate dies after the general election, it gets more complicated.
But what if the president-elect dies — meaning the winning presidential candidate dies after the election but before the inauguration on Jan. 20?
The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that if the president-elect dies, the rules of succession apply, and the vice-president-elect becomes the president-elect. Unfortunately, it's not clear when in the process a winning candidate becomes president-elect.
The winning candidate definitely assumes the title president-elect after Jan. 6, when Congress officially counts the Electoral College votes and declares a winner. But a winning presidential candidate has never died before being inaugurated, so Congress has never had to define president-elect.
https://people.howstuffworks.com/what-happens-presidential-candidate-dies.htm
When I was selling cars, I actually sold a car to a dead woman, so it should not surprise you to learn that there ARE politicians who got elected despite the fact that they were dead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/01/five-people-have-won-election-to-congress-despite-being-dead/
Trump is already dead (at least politically) , but he is still breathing (for now).
If he died before the election, it's POSSIBLE (but not guaranteed) that Mike Pence would be the candidate. If that happened, buckle your seat belts, because the ride might get a little rough.