One of Trump's Cabinet members gets to hide out during his State of the Union speech - here's how past 'designated survivors' spent their evenings under high security

White House/D. Myles Cullen

President Donald Trump with members of his Cabinet. His first State of the Union starts at 9 p.m. ET.

With President Donald Trump's first official State of the Union address on Tuesday, the White House's security apparatus is making preparations for a grim worse-case scenario.

If there was a targeted attack on the Capitol, someone would have to take over the government.

Excluding the years immediately after a new president is elected, one member of the president's Cabinet has been selected every year since the 1960s to be the "designated survivor."

They sit out the State of the Union far away from the House chamber, so that in case there is a catastrophe, a Senate-confirmed official could take the reigns of the presidency. Since 2005, a designated survivir from Congress has also been selected in order to rebuild the legislative branch.

This year's designated survivor has not been announced yet. Although highly unlikely, this doomsday scenario has captured the imaginations of screen writers and TV producers, spawning a an entire show on ABC called simply "Designated Survivor."

In the real world, designated survivors have often tended to be low-ranking cabinet members, and until 9/11, had spent their evenings away from Washington, DC in a variety of ways. Almost all choose to kick back, relax, and enjoy the perks of the presidential treatment for a few short hours.

Here are how past designated survivors have spent their State of the Union addresses as the possible president-to-be: