What would happen if Donald Trump decided to drop out of the race?

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, seen in reflection, poses for a portrait following an interview with the Associated Press at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. Trump says that if he’s elected president, he’ll know within six months whether he can achieve an elusive peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians, one of the world’s most vexing challenges. But the Republican presidential candidate says he has doubts about each side’s commitment to the peace process. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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It’s been a tough few days for Donald Trump’s campaign, though by most observations, much of the difficulty has been his own doing.

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From his continued sparring with the parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq, to the suggestion that the November general election is already rigged, to calling out a crying baby at a campaign rally, Trump has been the focus of nearly every media outlet and both conservative and liberal social media sites.

RELATED: President Obama says that Trump is “unfit” to be president, and some prominent Republicans agree

Adding some fuel to the fire were Trump’s comments on Tuesday that he was withholding his endorsements of U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

President Obama on Tuesday, during a nationally televised news conference, said that Trump has proven himself “unfit” for the office. He called on Republicans to stop backing the New York billionaire.

All of these recent factors, plus what he has said during the campaign to this point, have led some to speculate on what sounds like far-flung rumblings about Trump not finishing the race he started last June.

Earlier last month, Trump started tongues wagging when he told The New York Times that he would “let you know how I feel after it happens,” when asked if he would decline to serve as president should he win the election in November.

He was asked the question after rumors spread that he had no interest in serving as president, only winning the election.
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/760539979403628545

Many of Trump’s comments that seem genuine when said have been tongue-in-cheek, he insists, leading the candidate to slam the media for blowing them out of proportion.

ABC News reports GOP officials are exploring options for the possibility that Trump might suddenly quit the presidential race. Whether he is considering the option of not serving if elected, or, as an article in Vanity Fair suggested, he will quit the race before the election, it raises an interesting question about what happens if a major party’s nominee is not there come Jan. 20, 2017 when the oath of office is to be taken.

And, the public must be wondering as the top Google Trends question, Monday, was related to Trump dropping out.

Here’s what would happen if Trump dropped out before the election.

The Republican National Committee rules address what would happen should their nominee decide not to (or be unable to) continue on to the General Election on Nov. 8. The issue is addressed in Rule 9: “Filling Vacancies in Nominations.”

There are two things that can happen:

  1. The Party Chair calls a meeting of the National Committee, and the 168-member committee members would vote to fill the vacancy on the ticket. (A candidate must receive a majority of the votes to win the party’s nomination.)
  2. The RNC can reconvene the national convention “for the purpose of filling any such vacancies.”

Adding to that pressure, Trump would have to opt out of the race by early September for someone else to be on the ballot in enough states to win.

What would happen if a nominee won the election but withdrew before the Electoral College vote?

Again, choosing a nominee is the purview of the respective party. If one of the two people elected as president and vice president during the general election drops off the ticket, it’s the party’s responsibility to fill the vacancy.

Here’s what would happen if the person elected president decided not to take the oath after winning the election.

It would certainly be historic, since no president-elect has failed to be sworn in. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution addresses only the question of what happens should a president-elect die before taking office, presumably because they never considered that anyone would decline to take the office after they had won the election.

The amendment says that if the president-elect has died before being sworn in, then the vice-president-elect becomes president. It also says that if a presidential candidate does not qualify for the job, then the vice president-elect will serve until a qualified candidate is found.

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The question is addressed in Section 3 of the amendment:

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President-elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President-elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

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