No, the president cannot fire the vice president. Both officials are independently elected on the same national ticket through the Electoral College, and neither draws authority from the other. Unlike cabinet secretaries, who serve at the president’s pleasure, the vice president holds a constitutionally protected office that can only be taken away by impeachment and conviction in Congress, or given up voluntarily through resignation.
Why the President Has No Removal Power
The vice president’s immunity from presidential removal comes down to how the office is filled. Cabinet members serve because a president chose them and the Senate confirmed them. The vice president wins office through the same election the president does. That shared electoral origin means neither official derives authority from the other, and nothing in the Constitution gives the president a mechanism to end the vice president’s term.
The vice president also holds a role that sits outside the executive branch entirely. Article I makes the vice president the President of the Senate, with the power to cast tie-breaking votes.1Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov. President of the Senate No president can revoke that authority, because it comes from the Constitution itself rather than from any delegation of executive power.
What a President Can Do Instead
A president cannot remove the vice president, but a president can make the job feel empty. The modern vice presidency’s day-to-day influence depends almost entirely on what the president is willing to share. As former Vice President Dick Cheney put it, the ability of a vice president to be active and effective “turns ultimately on what the President wants.”
Federal law reflects that dynamic. The statute authorizing the Office of the Vice President’s staff and budget frames it as enabling the vice president to assist the president “in connection with the performance of functions specially assigned to the Vice President by the President.”2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 3 USC 106 – Assistance and Services for the Vice President A president who wants to sideline a vice president can stop assigning duties, exclude them from meetings, and cut off access to the internal flow of information. The title and the Senate role remain, but the practical influence that defines the modern office does not.
There is also a simpler political option that does not involve removing anyone mid-term: a president seeking re-election can pick a different running mate. Parties, not the Constitution, control who appears on the ticket. Abraham Lincoln replaced Hannibal Hamlin with Andrew Johnson for the 1864 election, and Franklin Roosevelt swapped Henry Wallace for Harry Truman in 1944. No firing is involved. The incumbent vice president simply is not nominated again and leaves office when the term ends.
Impeachment Is the Only Forced Exit
The sole constitutional process for involuntarily removing a vice president is impeachment. Article II, Section 4 provides that the president, vice president, and all civil officers can be removed upon impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.3Cornell Law Institute. U.S. Constitution Annotated – Article II, Section 4 – Overview of Impeachment Clause
The process works in two stages. The House of Representatives votes on articles of impeachment, which functions as a formal accusation. A simple majority is enough to impeach.4Congress.gov. Article I Section 2 The case then moves to the Senate for a trial, where conviction and removal require a two-thirds vote of the members present.5Congress.gov. Article I Section 3 The Senate can also bar a convicted official from any future federal office.
One open question: the Constitution specifies that the Chief Justice presides when the president is tried, but says nothing about who presides when the vice president is the defendant. Since the vice president normally presides over the Senate and obviously cannot preside over their own trial, most scholars think the president pro tempore would step in. The question has never been tested. No sitting vice president has ever been impeached.
Criminal Prosecution Is a Separate Path
A vice president’s legal position also differs sharply from the president’s when it comes to prosecution. The Department of Justice has long taken the view that a sitting president cannot be criminally indicted while in office. It reached the opposite conclusion about the vice president.
In a 1973 memorandum prepared during the Spiro Agnew investigation, the Office of Legal Counsel concluded that “the case for granting the Vice President immunity from criminal prosecution has not been made.” The memo reasoned that the considerations supporting presidential immunity, including the president’s control over federal prosecutions and the pardoning power, do not apply to the vice president.6U.S. Department of Justice. Amenability of the President, Vice President and Other Civil Officers to Federal Criminal Prosecution While in Office The memo also noted that Aaron Burr was indicted for murder in both New York and New Jersey while still serving as vice president in 1804, and no one at the time argued that his office shielded him. Agnew ultimately resigned rather than face indictment.
How Vice Presidents Have Actually Left Early
Only two vice presidents have resigned. John C. Calhoun stepped down on December 28, 1832, after political disagreements with President Andrew Jackson and moved to a vacant Senate seat. Spiro Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, while facing evidence of widespread corruption, including allegations that he had continued accepting bribes during his time as vice president.7U.S. Senate. About the Vice President – Vice Presidents of the United States
A vice president’s term also ends by succession. Nine vice presidents have become president: eight following a president’s death, and Gerald Ford after Richard Nixon’s resignation. Seven vice presidents have died in office. And of course, the term ends at the four-year mark if the vice president is not on a winning ticket again.
What does not exist is a recall. The Constitution sets fixed terms for federal officials and provides no recall mechanism, and state recall laws do not reach federal offices.
Filling a Vice Presidential Vacancy
Before 1967, a vacant vice presidency simply stayed empty until the next election. The 25th Amendment changed that. Section 1 confirmed that the vice president becomes president when the president dies, resigns, or is removed. Section 2 created a process for filling a vice presidential vacancy: the president nominates a replacement, who must be confirmed by a majority vote of both the House and the Senate.8Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Fifth Amendment
That process was used twice in quick succession during the 1970s. When Agnew resigned in 1973, President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford, who was confirmed by both chambers. Less than a year later, Nixon himself resigned and Ford became president. Ford then nominated Nelson Rockefeller, who was sworn in on December 19, 1974.7U.S. Senate. About the Vice President – Vice Presidents of the United States For a brief stretch, neither the president nor the vice president had been elected to their office by the public.
One gap the 25th Amendment left open is vice presidential incapacity. Sections 3 and 4 lay out detailed procedures for transferring presidential power when the president is unable to serve, but nothing in the Constitution addresses a vice president who becomes incapacitated without resigning.9Constitution Annotated | Congress.gov. Overview of Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Presidential Vacancy and Disability The office is not technically vacant, so Section 2’s replacement process would not apply. Unless the vice president resigned or Congress pursued impeachment, the seat would remain occupied but nonfunctional until the term expired.