History Characters / DesignatedSurvivor

--> '''Leo:''' [[PlausibleDeniability No no, we spend 2 hours on the phone every night. I mean, we...we were about to go on spring break together. This is a mistake]].

* TraumaCongaLine: Loses her then-boyfriend in the Capitol bombing, then becomes a target of TheConspiracy, then [[spoiler:loses her mentor Jason Atwood when he is shot dead by Catalan]], then [[spoiler:loses her ''new'' mentor John Foerstel in a bombing]], ''[[UpToEleven and then]]'' [[spoiler:her onetime paramour Damian Rennett is gunned down right in front of her and dies in hospital]]. It's enough that she starts regularly [[RevengeBeforeReason flying off the handle]] by the latter part of Season 2.

* AtLeastIAdmitIt: When Seth refuse to call on her for questions during a convention (knowing that he's still upset with her for tipping off the news reporter about Kirkman and Leo), she ''does'' admit that she did betrayed his trust for doing such a thing, but ask him why can't he forgive her when the president can.

* AdultFear: During an investigation into a highly dangerous conspiracy who managed to blow up the U.S. Capitol, his son goes MIA. [[spoiler:Sure enough, IHaveYourWife is in play. Later, his son is found dead in a river.]]

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:His son's body was found in a river, although he didn't outlive his son very long, as Jason dies later in the season, gunned down by Lozano while spying on Lloyd and Whitaker.]]

* ProperlyParanoid: He suspects that [[AdultFear his son's disappearance]] has something to do with the investigation, though the local police insist that missing child cases are usually misunderstandings and the kids show up unharmed a few hours later. [[spoiler:In this case, Atwood was right. His son was being held hostage by sinister forces.]]

* AdultFear: Losing his step-daughter in a terrorist attack.

* TooGoodToBeTrue: In the episode "Family Ties", his parents tells him that girlfriend is not who he thinks she is because it turns out that she's part of the whole setup that was arranged by President Turan.

->'''Played By:''' {{Creator/RichardBekins}}

->'''Played By:''' {{Creator/Richard Bekins}}

* SleazyPolitician: [[ImpliedTrope Implied.]] He removes mention of all of Tom's programs from his speech and tries to fire him while disguising it as a promotion. Tom mentions to Alex that he refuses to "play Richmond's games" and that he "didn't want to be one of those guys" when he was promoted to HUD Secretary. During Richmond's State of the Union address, Tom seems unimpressed, calling Richmond's promises his "greatest hits".

* NotHelpingYourCase: When he gets called out by his mom after finding out that he has been dealing drugs and his mom asking him what would have happened to his sister if she taken one of them, he says that it's not like his sister doesn't know anything about illegal drugs. Sorry Leo, but that doesn't help your case.

--> '''Leo:''' [[ImplausibleDeniability No no, we spend 2 hours on the phone every night. I mean, we...we were about to go on spring break together. This is a mistake]].

* NotSoDifferent: Gradually inches his way down the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism the longer he remains President. Contrast his reluctance to go to war against al-Sakar after the Capitol Bombing in the first season with his abrupt order to strike Kunami after the D.C. Metro bombing in the second season. It probably has something to do with the TraumaCongaLine his administration has to deal with.

* NotSoDifferent: By the later second season, she's gone a fair ways down the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, ordering an illegal search for phone records to find TheMole leaking White House information to the press. In a further irony, ''she'' leaks to the press that [[spoiler:Cornelius Moss]] was the source of the secrets, to get him on the defensive.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Nobody seems to like the guy -- often for good reason.

* SsoleSurvivor: Since he's the designated survivor, he wasn't in the Capitol Building when it was bombed, unlike the rest of the Richmond administration, Congress, and the Supreme Court.

* SoleSurvivor: Since he's the designated survivor, he wasn't in the Capitol Building when it was bombed, unlike the rest of the Richmond administration, Congress, and the Supreme Court.

* WideEyedIdealist: He accepted the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development because he wanted to do right by the American people and not because he wanted power or admiration. [[RealityEnsues The first episode sees him about to be pushed out for refusing to compromise himself over administration politics]], but fortune (or perhaps misfortune) strikes in his favor when the assassination of everyone above him in the presidential line of succession in the Capitol Hill bombing skyrockets him into the presidency.

->'''Played By:''' Adan Canto

->'''Played By:''' Martin Roach

->'''Played By:''' Mark A. Owen

->'''Played By:''' Cyrus Aazam

->'''Played By:''' Jeff Teravainen

->'''Played By:''' Nora Zehetner

->'''Played By:''' Nicholas Massouh

->'''Played By:''' Richard Waugh

->'''Played By:''' George Tchortov

--> '''Leo:''' [[ImplausibleDeniability No no, we spend 2 hours on the phone every night. I mean, we...we were about to go on spring break together. This is a mistake.

** Caught dealing with illegal drugs by his mom.

** Shoved a reporter who was asking leading questions about the FBI investigation into his mother and grandmother -- and ending up on national news, creating yet ''another'' scandal for his father's administration to handle, until discovering that it was all a set up arranged by President Turan.

* LukeIMightBeYourFather: It is implied that Leo may actually be the son of a previous boyfriend his mother had. Seth is horrified when word of this gets out to the press, and Tom and Alex really don't want this information to reach him. Eventually, Leo gets a DNA test to get some answers when the information reached him, which shows that [[spoiler:he is indeed Tom's son]].

* LukeIMightBeYourFather: It is implied that Leo may actually be the son of a previous boyfriend his mother had. Seth is horrified when word of this gets out to the press, and Tom and Alex really don't want this information to reach him. Eventually, Leo gets a DNA test to get some answers, which shows that [[spoiler:he is indeed Tom's son]].
* NotHelpingYourCase: When he gets called out by his mom after finding out he was dealing drugs and his mom asking him what would have happened to his sister if she taken one of them, he says that it's not like his sister doesn't know anything about illegal drugs. Sorry Leo, but that doesn't help your case.

* WhatTheHellHero: Alex calls Leo out when finding out that he has been dealing illegal drugs, pointing out that Penny found them.

* NotHelpingYourCase: When he was called out by his mom when finding out he was dealing drugs and his mom asked him what would have happened to his sister if she taken one of them, he says that his sister is 8 and it's not like she doesn't know anything about illegal drugs. Sorry Leo, but that doesn't help your case.

* NotHelpingYourCase: When he was called out by his mom when finding out he was dealing drugs and his mom asked him what would have happened to his sister if she taken one of them, he said that his sister is 8 and it's not like she doesn't know anything about illegal drugs. Sorry Leo, but that doesn't help your case.

* WhatTheHellHero?: Alex calls Leo out when finding out that he has been dealing illegal drugs, pointing out that Penny found them.

--> '''Leo:''' [[Not Helping Your Case I mean she's 8. It's not like she's stupid]].

--> '''Leo:''' [Not Helping Your Case] I mean she's 8. It's not like she's stupid.

* WhatTheHell,Hero?: Alex calls Leo out when finding out that he has been dealing illegal drugs, pointing out that Penny found them.

--> '''Leo:''' [[Not Helping Your Case I mean she's 8. It's not like she's stupid.]]
--> '''Alex:''' And what's your excuse?