Like many, I have been under the impression that if no President or Vice-President has been elected when DJT's term expires, then the new Speaker of the House will serve as acting President until someone is properly elected.
However, this may not be the case. It actually seems like there might be no clear stipulation at all regarding who controls the Executive Branch at that point.
Take a close look at the 12th, 20th, and 25th Amendments. None of them seem to actually deal with this case.
The 20th Amendment says that Congress may provide by law for this situation…. but it seems Congress has never actually done this!
Note that this is a totally different issue from the manner in which Congress is supposed to elect the ACTUAL President and Vice-President (in the case that the electoral vote does not produce a winner). The 12th Amendment provides for that.
The Presidential Succession Act does NOT seem to apply in the given case, or at least it does not make clear that it is supposed to apply.
The upshot is that if the terms expire with no President-elect confirmed by Congress, there may be an IMMEDIATE constitutional crisis. The MSM can then DEMAND that Congress act TOGETHER to select an acting President (in accord with the 20th Amendment), and this could seemingly be ANYONE (as Congress would be acting within the scope of its 20th Amendment authority).
Given the danger of a vacuum in the Executive, Republicans could seemingly be "forced" into a "compromise". Is this the DS plan?