The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
| President of the United States | |
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| Abbreviation | POTUS |
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| Residence | White House |
| Seat | Washington, D.C. |
| Appointer | Electoral College or via succession |
| Term length | Four years renewable once |
| Constituting instrument | Constitution of the United States (1789) |
| Formation | March 4, 1789 |
| First holder | George Washington |
| Salary | $400,000 per year |
| Website | whitehouse.gov |
The power of the presidency has grown substantially since the first president, George Washington, took office in 1789. While presidential power has ebbed and flowed over time, the presidency has played an increasingly significant role in American political life since the beginning of the 20th century, carrying over into the 21st century with notable expansions during the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush. In modern times, the president is one of the world's most powerful political figures and the leader of the world's only remaining superpower. As the leader of the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP, the president possesses significant domestic and international hard and soft power. For much of the 20th century, especially during the Cold War, the U.S. president was often called "the leader of the free world".
Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government and vests executive power in the president. The power includes the execution and enforcement of federal law and the responsibility to appoint federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory, and judicial officers. Based on constitutional provisions empowering the president to appoint and receive ambassadors and conclude treaties with foreign powers, and on subsequent laws enacted by Congress, the modern presidency has primary responsibility for conducting U.S. foreign policy. The role includes responsibility for directing the world's most expensive military, which has the second-largest nuclear arsenal.
The president also plays a leading role in federal legislation and domestic policymaking. As part of the system of separation of powers, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation. Since modern presidents are typically viewed as leaders of their political parties, major policymaking is significantly shaped by the outcome of presidential elections, with presidents taking an active role in promoting their policy priorities to members of Congress who are often electorally dependent on the president. In recent decades, presidents have also made increasing use of executive orders, agency regulations, and judicial appointments to shape domestic policy.
The president is elected indirectly through the Electoral College to a four-year term, along with the vice president. Under the Twenty-second Amendment, ratified in 1951, no person who has been elected to two presidential terms may be elected to a third. In addition, nine vice presidents have become president by virtue of a president's intra-term death or resignation. In all, 45 individuals have served 47 presidencies spanning 60 four-year terms.Donald Trump is the 47th and current president since January 20, 2025.
History and development
Origins
During the American Revolutionary War, the Thirteen Colonies, represented by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, declared themselves to be independent sovereign states and no longer under British rule. The affirmation was made in the Declaration of Independence, which was written predominantly by Thomas Jefferson and adopted unanimously on July 4, 1776, by the Second Continental Congress. Recognizing the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British, the Continental Congress simultaneously began the process of drafting a constitution that would bind the states together. There were long debates on a number of issues, including representation and voting, and the exact powers to be given the central government. Congress finished work on the Articles of Confederation to establish a perpetual union between the states in November 1777 and sent it to the states for ratification.
Under the Articles, which took effect on March 1, 1781, the Congress of the Confederation was a central political authority without any legislative power. It could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, and could not impose any taxes or enforce local commercial regulations upon its citizens. This institutional design reflected how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. The states were out from under any monarchy and assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress; the remaining prerogatives were lodged within their own respective state governments. The members of Congress elected a president of the United States in Congress Assembled to preside over its deliberation as a neutral discussion moderator. Unrelated to and quite dissimilar from the later office of president of the United States, it was a largely ceremonial position without much influence.
In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak and their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another. They witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed. Events such as the Newburgh Conspiracy and Shays' Rebellion demonstrated that the Articles of Confederation were not working.
Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, Alexander Hamilton of New York led the Annapolis delegates in a call for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.
When the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature.New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.
1789–1933
As the nation's first president, George Washington established many norms that would come to define the office. His decision to retire after two terms helped address fears that the nation would devolve into monarchy and established a precedent that would not be broken until 1940 and would eventually be made permanent by the Twenty-Second Amendment. By the end of his presidency, political parties had developed, with John Adams defeating Thomas Jefferson in 1796, the first truly contested presidential election. After Jefferson defeated Adams in 1800, he and his fellow Virginians James Madison and James Monroe would each serve two terms, eventually dominating the nation's politics during the Era of Good Feelings until Adams' son John Quincy Adams won election in 1824 after the Democratic-Republican Party split.
The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 was a significant milestone, as Jackson was not part of the Virginia and Massachusetts elite that had held the presidency for its first 40 years.Jacksonian democracy sought to strengthen the presidency at the expense of Congress, while broadening public participation as the nation rapidly expanded westward. However, his successor, Martin Van Buren, became unpopular after the Panic of 1837, and the death of William Henry Harrison and subsequent poor relations between John Tyler and Congress led to further weakening of the office. Including Van Buren, in the 24 years between 1837 and 1861, six presidential terms would be filled by eight different men, with none serving two terms. The Senate played an important role during this period, with the Great Triumvirate of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun playing key roles in shaping national policy in the 1830s and 1840s until debates over slavery began pulling the nation apart in the 1850s.
Abraham Lincoln's leadership during the Civil War has led historians to regard him as one of the nation's greatest presidents. The circumstances of the war and Republican domination of Congress made the office very powerful, and Lincoln's re-election in 1864 was the first time a president had been re-elected since Jackson in 1832. After Lincoln's assassination, his successor Andrew Johnson lost all political support and was nearly removed from office, with Congress remaining powerful during the two-term presidency of Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. After the end of Reconstruction, Grover Cleveland would eventually become the first Democratic president elected since before the war, running in three consecutive elections (1884, 1888, 1892) and winning twice. In 1900, William McKinley became the first incumbent to win re-election since Grant in 1872.
After McKinley's assassination by Leon Czolgosz in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became a dominant figure in American politics. Historians believe Roosevelt permanently changed the political system by strengthening the presidency, with some key accomplishments including breaking up trusts, conservationism, labor reforms, making personal character as important as the issues, and hand-picking his successor, William Howard Taft. The following decade, Woodrow Wilson led the nation to victory during World War I, although Wilson's proposal for the League of Nations was rejected by the Senate.Warren Harding, while popular in office, would see his legacy tarnished by scandals, especially Teapot Dome, and Herbert Hoover quickly became very unpopular after failing to alleviate the Great Depression.
Imperial presidency
The ascendancy of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 led further toward what historians now describe as the Imperial presidency. Backed by enormous Democratic majorities in Congress and public support for major change, Roosevelt's New Deal dramatically increased the size and scope of the federal government, including more executive agencies.: 211–12 The traditionally small presidential staff was greatly expanded, with the Executive Office of the President being created in 1939, none of whom require Senate confirmation.: 229–231 Roosevelt's unprecedented re-election to a third and fourth term, the victory of the United States in World War II, and the nation's growing economy all helped established the office as a position of global leadership.: 269 His successors, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, each served two terms as the Cold War led the presidency to be viewed as the "leader of the free world", while John F. Kennedy was a youthful and popular leader who benefited from the rise of television in the 1960s.
After Lyndon B. Johnson lost popular support due to the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon's presidency collapsed in the Watergate scandal, Congress enacted a series of reforms intended to reassert itself. These included the War Powers Resolution, enacted over Nixon's veto in 1973, and the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that sought to strengthen congressional fiscal powers. By 1976, Gerald Ford conceded that "the historic pendulum" had swung toward Congress, raising the possibility of a "disruptive" erosion of his ability to govern. Ford failed to win election to a full term and his successor, Jimmy Carter, failed to win re-election. Ronald Reagan, who had been an actor before beginning his political career, used his talent as a communicator to help reshape the American agenda away from New Deal policies toward more conservative ideology.
After the Cold War, the United States became the world's undisputed leading power.Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama each served two terms as president. Meanwhile, the nation gradually became more politically polarized, leading to the ascendency of increasingly polarized Congressmembers, especially following the 1994 mid-term elections which saw Republicans control the House for the first time in 40 years, and the rise of routine filibusters in the Senate. Recent presidents have thus increasingly focused on executive orders, agency regulations, and judicial appointments to implement major policies, at the expense of legislation and congressional power. Presidential elections in the 21st century have reflected this continuing polarization, with no candidate except Obama in 2008 winning by more than five percent of the popular vote and two, George W. Bush (2000) and Donald Trump (2016), winning in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. Bush (2004) and Trump (2024) were later re-elected, winning both in the Electoral College and the popular vote.
Critics of presidency's evolution
The nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; however, they did not expect a strong executive department. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and "monarchist" in nature. In 2008 professor Dana D. Nelson expressed belief that presidents over the previous thirty years worked towards "undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies". She criticized proponents of the unitary executive theory for expanding "the many existing uncheckable executive powers—such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements—that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress".Bill Wilson, board member of Americans for Limited Government, opined that the expanded presidency was "the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule".
Legislative powers
Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution vests all lawmaking power in Congress's hands, and Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 prevents the president (and all other executive branch officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Nevertheless, the modern presidency exerts significant power over legislation, both due to constitutional provisions and historical developments over time.
Signing and vetoing bills
The president's most significant legislative power derives from the Presentment Clause, which gives the president the power to veto any bill passed by Congress. While Congress can override a presidential veto, it requires a two-thirds vote of both houses, which is usually very difficult to achieve except for widely supported bipartisan legislation. The framers of the Constitution feared that Congress would seek to increase its power and enable a "tyranny of the majority", so giving the indirectly elected president a veto was viewed as an important check on the legislative power. While George Washington believed the veto should only be used in cases where a bill was unconstitutional, it is now routinely used in cases where presidents have policy disagreements with a bill. The veto – or threat of a veto – has thus evolved to make the modern presidency a central part of the American legislative process.
Specifically, under the Presentment Clause, once a bill has been presented by Congress, the president has three options:
- Sign the legislation within ten days, excluding Sundays, the bill becomes law.
- Veto the legislation within the above timeframe and return it to the house of Congress from which it originated, expressing any objections, the bill does not become law, unless both houses of Congress vote to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.
- Take no action on the legislation within the above timeframe—the bill becomes law, as if the president had signed it, unless Congress is adjourned at the time, in which case it does not become law, which is known as a pocket veto.
In 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.
Setting the agenda
For most of American history, candidates for president have sought election on the basis of a promised legislative agenda. Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 requires the president to recommend such measures to Congress which the president deems "necessary and expedient". This is done through the constitutionally-based State of the Union address, which usually outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year, and through other formal and informal communications with Congress.
The president can be involved in crafting legislation by suggesting, requesting, or even insisting that Congress enact laws that the president believes are needed. Additionally, the president can attempt to shape legislation during the legislative process by exerting influence on individual members of Congress. Presidents possess this power because the Constitution is silent about who can write legislation, but the power is limited because only members of Congress can introduce legislation.
The president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.
Promulgating regulations
Many laws enacted by Congress do not address every possible detail, and either explicitly or implicitly delegate powers of implementation to an appropriate federal agency. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress.
In the 20th century, critics charged that too many legislative and budgetary powers that should have belonged to Congress had slid into the hands of presidents. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a "virtual army of 'czars'—each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House". Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an "increasingly swollen executive branch" and "the eclipse of Congress".
Convening and adjourning Congress
To allow the government to act quickly in case of a major domestic or international crisis arising when Congress is not in session, the president is empowered by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution to call a special session of one or both houses of Congress. Since John Adams first did so in 1797, the president has called the full Congress to convene for a special session on 27 occasions. Harry S. Truman was the most recent to do so in July 1948, known as the Turnip Day Session. In addition, prior to ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, which brought forward the date on which Congress convenes from December to January, newly inaugurated presidents would routinely call the Senate to meet to confirm nominations or ratify treaties. In practice, the power has fallen into disuse in the modern era as Congress now formally remains in session year-round, convening pro forma sessions every three days even when ostensibly in recess. Correspondingly, the president is authorized to adjourn Congress if the House and Senate cannot agree on the time of adjournment; no president has ever had to exercise this power.
Executive powers
Suffice it to say that the President is made the sole repository of the executive powers of the United States, and the powers entrusted to him as well as the duties imposed upon him are awesome indeed.
The president is head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed". The executive branch has over four million employees, including the military.
Administrative powers
Presidents make political appointments. An incoming president may make up to 4,000 upon taking office, 1,200 of which must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and various officers, are among the positions filled by presidential appointment with Senate confirmation.
The power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute.
To manage the growing federal bureaucracy, presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the president's innermost layer of aides, and their assistants, are located in the White House Office.
The president also possesses the power to manage operations of the federal government by issuing various types of directives, such as presidential proclamation and executive orders. When the president is lawfully exercising one of the constitutionally conferred presidential responsibilities, the scope of this power is broad. Even so, these directives are subject to judicial review by U.S. federal courts, which can find them to be unconstitutional. Congress can overturn an executive order through legislation.
Foreign affairs
Article II, Section 3, Clause 4 requires the president to "receive Ambassadors". This clause, known as the Reception Clause, has been interpreted to imply that the president possesses broad power over matters of foreign policy, and to provide support for the president's exclusive authority to grant recognition to a foreign government. The Constitution also empowers the president to appoint United States ambassadors, and to propose and chiefly negotiate agreements between the United States and other countries. Such agreements, upon receiving the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate (by a two-thirds majority vote), become binding with the force of federal law.
While foreign affairs has always been a significant element of presidential responsibilities, advances in technology since the Constitution's adoption have increased presidential power. Where formerly ambassadors were vested with significant power to independently negotiate on behalf of the United States, presidents now routinely meet directly with leaders of foreign countries.
Commander-in-chief
One of the most important of executive powers is the president's role as commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, but the president has ultimate responsibility for the direction and disposition of the military. The exact degree of authority that the Constitution grants to the president as commander-in-chief has been the subject of much debate throughout history, with Congress at various times granting the president wide authority and at others attempting to restrict that authority. The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explained this in Federalist No. 69:
The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. ... It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces ... while that [the power] of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies, all [of] which ... would appertain to the legislature. [Emphasis in the original.]
In the modern era, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, Congress must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. Presidents have historically initiated the process for going to war, but critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989.
The amount of military detail handled personally by the president in wartime has varied greatly. George Washington, the first U.S. president, firmly established military subordination under civilian authority. In 1794, Washington used his constitutional powers to assemble 12,000 militia to quell the Whiskey Rebellion, a conflict in Western Pennsylvania involving armed farmers and distillers who refused to pay an excise tax on spirits. According to historian Joseph Ellis, this was the "first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field", though James Madison briefly took control of artillery units in defense of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812.Abraham Lincoln was deeply involved in overall strategy and in day-to-day operations during the American Civil War, 1861–1865; historians have given Lincoln high praise for his strategic sense and his ability to select and encourage commanders such as Ulysses S. Grant.
The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces is delegated to the Department of Defense and is normally exercised through the secretary of defense. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combatant Commands assist with the operation as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP).
Judicial powers
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: The case Trump v. United States (2024). (July 2024) |
The president has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations require Senate confirmation before they may take office. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon a month after taking office. Presidents often grant pardons shortly before leaving office, like when Bill Clinton pardoned Patty Hearst on his last day in office; this is often controversial.
Two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed the privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681 (1997), that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president.
The state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States 92 U.S. 105 (1876), when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds 345 U.S. 1 (1953), where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions.
The degree to which the president personally has absolute immunity from court cases is contested and has been the subject of several Supreme Court decisions. Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982) dismissed a civil lawsuit against by-then former president Richard Nixon based on his official actions. Clinton v. Jones (1997) decided that a president has no immunity against civil suits for actions taken before becoming president and ruled that a sexual harassment suit could proceed without delay, even against a sitting president. The 2019 Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election detailed evidence of possible obstruction of justice, but investigators declined to refer Donald Trump for prosecution based on a United States Department of Justice policy against indicting an incumbent president. The report noted that impeachment by Congress was available as a remedy. As of October 2019, a case was pending in the federal courts regarding access to personal tax returns in a criminal case brought against Donald Trump by the New York County District Attorney alleging violations of New York state law.
Memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel issued in 1973 and 2000 internally prohibit the Department of Justice from prosecuting a president, which some legal scholars have criticized but others have endorsed.
In defense against federal criminal prosecution for his alleged 2020 election subversion, in January 2024, Trump argued to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that a president enjoys absolute immunity for criminal acts conducted while in office. The next month, a three-judge panel of the court unanimously ruled against Trump. It was the first time an appeals court had addressed such a presidential immunity matter, since no other sitting or former president had ever been criminally indicted.
In Trump v. United States, on July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents were entitled to absolute immunity from exercising core powers enumerated by the Constitution, presumption of immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial actions. The case was sent back to lower courts to determine which actions in the criminal complaint should be classified as official vs. unofficial. The ruling was the first time the courts granted a president criminal immunity.
Leadership roles
Head of state
As head of state, the president represents the United States government to its own people and represents the nation to the rest of the world. For example, during a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening.
As a national leader, the president also fulfills many less formal ceremonial duties. For example, William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators's Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. Every president since Theodore Roosevelt has served as honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America.
Other presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947, during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of "pardoning" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life.
Presidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition.Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president.
The modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as "propagandized leadership" which has a "mesmerizing power surrounding the office". Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed "in rich detail" which "drew on the power of myth" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to "drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees".
Head of party
The president is typically considered to be the head of their political party. Since the entire House of Representatives and at least one-third of the Senate is elected simultaneously with the president, candidates from a political party inevitably have their electoral success intertwined with the performance of the party's presidential candidate. The coattail effect, or lack thereof, will also often impact a party's candidates at state and local levels of government as well. However, there are often tensions between a president and others in the party, with presidents who lose significant support from their party's caucus in Congress generally viewed to be weaker and less effective.
Global leader
With the rise of the United States as a superpower in the 20th century, and the United States having the world's largest economy into the 21st century, the president is typically viewed as a global leader, and at times the world's most powerful political figure. The position of the United States as the leading member of NATO, and the country's strong relationships with other wealthy or democratic nations like those comprising the European Union, have led to the moniker that the president is the "leader of the free world".
Selection process
Eligibility
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for holding the presidency. To serve as president, one must:
- be a natural-born citizen of the United States;
- be at least 35 years old;
- be a resident in the United States for at least 14 years.
A person who meets the above qualifications would, however, still be disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:
- Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, having been impeached, convicted and disqualified from holding further public office, although there is some legal debate as to whether the disqualification clause also includes the presidential office: the only previous persons disqualified under this clause were three federal judges.
- Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, is eligible to hold any office. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress. There is, again, some debate as to whether the clause as written allows disqualification from the presidential position, or whether it would first require litigation outside of Congress, although there is precedent for use of this amendment outside of the original intended purpose of excluding Confederates from public office after the Civil War.
- Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once.
Campaigns and nomination
The modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's presidential nominee. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession of presidents is lawyer.
Nominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.
Election
The president is elected indirectly by the voters of each state and the District of Columbia through the Electoral College, a body of electors formed every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president to concurrent four-year terms. As prescribed by Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, each state is entitled to a number of electors equal to the size of its total delegation in both houses of Congress. Additionally, the Twenty-third Amendment provides that the District of Columbia is entitled to the number it would have if it were a state, but in no case more than that of the least populous state. Currently, all states and the District of Columbia select their electors based on a popular election. In all but two states, the party whose presidential–vice presidential ticket receives a plurality of popular votes in the state has its entire slate of elector nominees chosen as the state's electors.Maine and Nebraska deviate from this winner-take-all practice, awarding two electors to the statewide winner and one to the winner in each congressional district.
On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, the electors convene in their respective state capitals (and in Washington, D.C.) to vote for president and, on a separate ballot, for vice president. They typically vote for the candidates of the party that nominated them. While there is no constitutional mandate or federal law requiring them to do so, the District of Columbia and 32 states have laws requiring that their electors vote for the candidates to whom they are pledged. The constitutionality of these laws was upheld in Chiafalo v. Washington (2020). Following the vote, each state then sends a certified record of their electoral votes to Congress. The votes of the electors are opened and counted during a joint session of Congress, held in the first week of January. If a candidate has received an absolute majority of electoral votes for president (currently 270 of 538), that person is declared the winner. Otherwise, the House of Representatives must meet to elect a president using a contingent election procedure in which representatives, voting by state delegation, with each state casting a single vote, choose between the top three electoral vote-getters for president. To win the presidency, a candidate must receive the votes of an absolute majority of states (currently 26 of 50).
There have been two contingent presidential elections in the nation's history. A 73–73 electoral vote tie between Thomas Jefferson and fellow Democratic-Republican Aaron Burr in the election of 1800 necessitated the first. Conducted under the original procedure established by Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which stipulates that if two or three persons received a majority vote and an equal vote, the House of Representatives would choose one of them for president; the runner-up would become vice president. On February 17, 1801, Jefferson was elected president on the 36th ballot, and Burr elected vice president. Afterward, the system was overhauled through the Twelfth Amendment in time to be used in the 1804 election. A quarter-century later, the choice for president again devolved to the House when no candidate won an absolute majority of electoral votes (131 of 261) in the election of 1824. Under the Twelfth Amendment, the House was required to choose a president from among the top three electoral vote recipients: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford. Held February 9, 1825, this second and most recent contingent election resulted in John Quincy Adams being elected president on the first ballot.
Inauguration
Pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the four-year term of office for both the president and the vice president begins at noon on January 20, in the year following the preceding presidential election. The first presidential and vice presidential terms to begin on this date, known as Inauguration Day, were the second terms of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner in 1937. Previously, Inauguration Day was on March 4. As a result of the date change, the first term (1933–37) of both men had been shortened by 43 days.
Before executing the powers of the office, a president is required to recite the presidential Oath of Office, found in Article II, Section 1, Clause 8 of the Constitution. This is the only component in the inauguration ceremony mandated by the Constitution:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Presidents have traditionally placed one hand upon a Bible while taking the oath, and have added "So help me God" to the end of the oath. Although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the chief justice of the United States.
Incumbency
Term limit
When the first president, George Washington, announced in his Farewell Address that he was not running for a third term, he established a "two terms then out" precedent. Precedent became tradition after Thomas Jefferson publicly embraced the principle a decade later during his second term, as did his two immediate successors, James Madison and James Monroe. In spite of the strong two-term tradition, Ulysses S. Grant sought nomination at the 1880 Republican National Convention for a non-consecutive third term, but was unsuccessful.
In 1940, after leading the nation through the Great Depression and focused on supporting U.S. allied nations at war with the Axis powers, Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term, breaking the long-standing precedent. Four years later, with the U.S. engaged in World War II, he was re-elected again despite his declining physical health; he died 82 days into his fourth term on April 12, 1945.
In response to the unprecedented length of Roosevelt's presidency, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted in 1951. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than two years (24 months) of another president's four-year term. Harry S. Truman, the president at the time it was submitted to the states by the Congress, was exempted from its limitations. Without the exemption, he would not have been eligible to run for a second full term in 1952 (which he briefly sought), as he had served nearly all of Franklin Roosevelt's unexpired 1945–1949 term and had been elected to a full four-year term beginning in 1949.
Vacancies and succession
Under Section 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, ratified in 1967, the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death, or resignation of the president. Deaths have occurred a number of times, resignation has occurred only once, and removal from office has never occurred.
Before the ratification of the Twenty-fifth amendment (which clarified the matter of succession), Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, stated only that the vice president assumes the "powers and duties" of the presidency in the event of a president's removal, death, resignation, or inability. Under this clause, there was ambiguity about whether the vice president would actually become president in the event of a vacancy, or simply act as president, potentially resulting in a special election. Upon the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841, Vice President John Tyler declared that he had succeeded to the office itself, refusing to accept any papers addressed to the "Acting President", and Congress ultimately accepted it.
In the event of a double vacancy, Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 also authorizes Congress to declare who shall become acting president in the "Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the president and vice president". The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (codified as 3 U.S.C. § 19) provides that if both the president and vice president have left office or are both otherwise unavailable to serve during their terms of office, the presidential line of succession follows the order of: speaker of the House, then, if necessary, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and then if necessary, the eligible heads of federal executive departments who form the president's cabinet. The cabinet currently has 15 members, of which the secretary of state is first in line; the other Cabinet secretaries follow in the order in which their department (or the department of which their department is the successor) was created. Those individuals who are constitutionally ineligible to be elected to the presidency are also disqualified from assuming the powers and duties of the presidency through succession. No statutory successor has yet been called upon to act as president.
Declarations of inability
Under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may temporarily transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate a statement that he is unable to discharge his duties. The president resumes his or her powers upon transmitting a second declaration stating that he is again able. The mechanism has been used by Ronald Reagan (once), George W. Bush (twice), and Joe Biden (once), each in anticipation of surgery.
The Twenty-fifth Amendment also provides that the vice president, together with a majority of certain members of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration, to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate, to the effect that the president is unable to discharge his or her powers and duties. If the president then declares that no such inability exist, he or she resumes the presidential powers unless the vice president and Cabinet make a second declaration of presidential inability, in which case Congress decides the question.
Removal
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows for the removal of high federal officials, including the president, from office for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 authorizes the House of Representatives to serve as a "grand jury" with the power to impeach said officials by a majority vote.Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 authorizes the Senate to serve as a court with the power to remove impeached officials from office, by a two-thirds vote to convict.
Three presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021; none have been convicted by the Senate. Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee conducted an impeachment inquiry against Richard Nixon in 1973–74 and reported three articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives for final action; however, he resigned from office before the House voted on them.
Circumvention of authority
Controversial measures have sometimes been taken short of removal to deal with perceived recklessness on the part of the president, or with a long-term disability. In some cases, staff have intentionally failed to deliver messages to or from the president, typically to avoid executing or promoting the president to write certain orders. This has ranged from Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff not transmitting orders to the Cabinet due to the president's heavy drinking, to staff removing memos from Donald Trump's desk. Decades before the Twenty-fifth Amendment, in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson had a stroke that left him partly incapacitated. First lady Edith Wilson kept this condition a secret from the public for a while, and controversially became the sole gatekeeper for access to the president (aside from his doctor), assisting him with paperwork and deciding which information was "important" enough to share with him.
Compensation
| Presidential pay history | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year established | Salary | Salary in 2023 USD |
| 1789 | $25,000 | $639,362 |
| 1873 | $50,000 | $1,271,667 |
| 1909 | $75,000 | $2,543,333 |
| 1949 | $100,000 | $1,280,559 |
| 1969 | $200,000 | $1,661,706 |
| 2001 | $400,000 | $688,292 |
| Sources: | ||
Since 2001, the president's annual salary has been $400,000, along with a $50,000 expense allowance; a $100,000 nontaxable travel account; and a $19,000 entertainment[clarification needed] account. The president's salary is set by Congress, and under Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution, any increase or reduction in presidential salary cannot take effect before the next presidential term of office.
Residence
The Executive Residence of the White House in Washington, D.C., is the official residence of the president. The site was selected by George Washington, and the cornerstone was laid in 1792. Every president since John Adams (in 1800) has lived there. At various times in U.S. history, it has been known as the "President's Palace", the "President's House", and the "Executive Mansion". Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901. The federal government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family, and guest dry cleaning and food.
Camp David, officially titled Naval Support Facility Thurmont, a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, is the president's country residence. A place of solitude and tranquility, the site has been used extensively to host foreign dignitaries since the 1940s.
The President's Guest House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. Four interconnected, 19th-century houses—Blair House, Lee House, and 700 and 704 Jackson Place—with a combined floor space exceeding 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) constitute the property.
- Presidential residences
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White House, the official residence -
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Camp David in Frederick County, Maryland, the official retreat -
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Blair House, the official guest house
Travel
The primary means of long-distance air travel for the president is one of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the president is aboard is designated as "Air Force One" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes, while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. The president also has access to smaller Air Force aircraft, most notably the Boeing C-32, which are used when the president must travel to airports that cannot support a jumbo jet. Any civilian aircraft the president is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight.
For short-distance air travel, the president has access to a fleet of U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the president is actually aboard to any would-be threats.
For ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine designed to look like a Cadillac sedan, but built on a truck chassis. The U.S. Secret Service operates and maintains the fleet of several limousines. The president also has access to two armored motorcoaches, which are primarily used for touring trips.
- Presidential transportation
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The presidential limousine, dubbed "The Beast" -
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The presidential plane, called Air Force One when the president is on board -
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The presidential helicopter, known as Marine One when the president is aboard
Protection
The U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition.
Post-presidency
Activities
Some former presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as chief justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892, and Donald Trump, whose bid for reelection failed in 2020, was elected president again four years later in 2024. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for 17 years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875, though he died soon after. Some ex-presidents were very active, especially in international affairs, most notably Theodore Roosevelt; Herbert Hoover; Richard Nixon; and Jimmy Carter.
Presidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman.Jimmy Carter became a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. During his presidency, George W. Bush called on former presidents George H. W. Bush and Clinton to assist with humanitarian efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. President Obama followed suit by asking presidents Clinton and George W. Bush to lead efforts to aid Haiti after an earthquake devastated that country in 2010.
Clinton has been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his 2012 reelection campaign. Obama has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, having worked with his former vice president Joe Biden on his 2020 election campaign. After losing his bid for the presidency in 2020, Trump remained politically active and was an outspoken critic of his successor and the Democratic Party. He also contended with four criminal cases. Trump announced his fourth bid to the presidency in 2022, ultimately becoming the nominee of his party for the third time and won a second presidential term in 2024.
Pension and other benefits
The Former Presidents Act (FPA), enacted in 1958, grants lifetime benefits to former presidents and their widows, including a monthly pension, medical care in military facilities, health insurance, and Secret Service protection; also provided is funding for a certain number of staff and for office expenses. The act has been amended several times to provide increases in presidential pensions and in the allowances for office staff. The FPA excludes any president who was removed from office by impeachment.
According to a 2008 report by the Congressional Research Service:
Chief executives leaving office prior to 1958 often entered retirement pursuing various occupations and received no federal assistance. When industrialist Andrew Carnegie announced a plan in 1912 to offer $25,000 annual pensions to former Presidents, many Members of Congress deemed it inappropriate that such a pension would be provided by a private corporation executive. That same year, legislation was first introduced to create presidential pensions, but it was not enacted. In 1955, such legislation was considered by Congress because of former President Harry S. Truman's financial limitations in hiring an office staff
The pension has increased numerous times with congressional approval. Retired presidents receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 per year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The act also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges.
Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting Secret Service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime Secret Service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A first spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for Secret Service protection.
Presidential libraries
Every president since Herbert Hoover has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records, and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, including:
- The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois;
- The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Southern Methodist University;
- The George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University; and
- The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.
Several former presidents have overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries. Some even made arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries contain the graves of the president they document:
- The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri;
- The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas;
- The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California; and
- The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.
These gravesites are open to the general public.
Political affiliation
Political parties have dominated American politics for most of the nation's history. Though the Founding Fathers generally spurned political parties as divisive and disruptive, and their rise had not been anticipated when the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, organized political parties developed in the U.S. in the mid-1790s nonetheless. They evolved from political factions, which began to appear almost immediately after the Federal government came into existence. Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as "pro-administration" and would eventually form the Federalist Party, while those in opposition largely joined the emerging Democratic-Republican Party.
Greatly concerned about the very real capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together, Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight-year presidency. He was, and remains, the only U.S. president never to be affiliated with a political party. Since Washington, every U.S. president has been affiliated with a political party at the time of assuming office.
The number of presidents per political party by their affiliation at the time they were first sworn into office (alphabetical, by last name) are:
| Party | Number of presidents | Name(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | 19 | Chester A. Arthur, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, James A. Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, Herbert Hoover, Abraham Lincoln,William McKinley, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Donald Trump (incumbent) | |
| Democratic | 15 | Joe Biden, James Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, Grover Cleveland, Bill Clinton, Andrew Jackson, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, Franklin Pierce, James K. Polk, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Martin Van Buren, and Woodrow Wilson | |
| Democratic-Republican | 4 | John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe | |
| Whig | 4 | Millard Fillmore, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and John Tyler | |
| Federalist | 1 | John Adams | |
| National Union | 1 | Andrew Johnson | |
| No party | 1 | George Washington | |
Timeline of presidents
The following timeline depicts the progression of the presidents and their political affiliation at the time of assuming office.
See also
- Outline of American politics
Notes
- In addition to $100,000 in travel reimbursement, $19,000 for entertainment and $50,000 for additional expenses.
- The informal term POTUS originated in the Phillips Code, a shorthand method created in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips for the rapid transmission of press reports by telegraph.
- The nine vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency upon their predecessor's death or resignation and served for the remainder of his term are: John Tyler (1841); Millard Fillmore (1850); Andrew Johnson (1865); Chester A. Arthur (1881); Theodore Roosevelt (1901); Calvin Coolidge (1923); Harry S. Truman (1945); Lyndon B. Johnson (1963); and Gerald Ford (1974).
- Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, and Donald Trump is currently serving his second non-consecutive term, so each is counted twice.
- Nearly all scholars rank Lincoln among the nation's top three presidents, with many placing him first. See Historical rankings of presidents of the United States for a collection of survey results.
- See List of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin.
- Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected for a second term as part of the National Union Party ticket with Democrat Andrew Johnson in 1864.
- Former Democrat John Tyler was elected vice president on the Whig Party ticket with Harrison in 1840. Tyler's policy priorities as president soon proved to be opposed to most of the Whig agenda, and he was expelled from the party in September 1841.
- Democrat Andrew Johnson was elected vice president on the National Union Party ticket with Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Later, while president, Johnson tried and failed to build a party of loyalists under the National Union banner. Near the end of his presidency, Johnson rejoined the Democratic Party.
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Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror By Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr. and Aziz Z. Huq (authors)
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... back in the 1980s, Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes ran a piece skewering Reagan's policies on the elderly ... But while her voiceover delivered a scathing critique, the video footage was all drawn from carefully - [sic]staged photo-ops of Reagan smiling with seniors and addressing large crowds ... Deaver thanked ... Stahl ... for broadcasting all those images of Reagan looking his best.
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in rich detail how Kennedy drew on the power of myth as he framed his experience during World War II, when his PT boat was sliced in half by a Japanese ...
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Further reading
- Edwards, George C. and Thomas G. Howell (eds.). 2009. The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency. Oxford University Press.
- Kernell, Samuel; Jacobson, Gary C. (1987). "Congress and the Presidency as News in the Nineteenth Century" (PDF). Journal of Politics. 49 (4): 1016–1035. doi:10.2307/2130782. JSTOR 2130782. S2CID 154834781.
- Howell, William G. 2023. The American Presidency: An Institutional Approach to Executive Politics. Princeton University Press.
- Sigelman, Lee; Bullock, David (1991). "Candidates, issues, horse races, and hoopla: Presidential campaign coverage, 1888–1988" (PDF). American Politics Quarterly. 19 (1): 5–32. doi:10.1177/1532673x9101900101. S2CID 154283367.
- Tebbel, John William, and Sarah Miles Watts. The Press and the Presidency: From George Washington to Ronald Reagan (Oxford University Press, 1985). online review
- Waterman, Richard W., and Robert Wright. The Image-Is-Everything Presidency: Dilemmas in American Leadership (Routledge, 2018).
- Presidential Studies Quarterly, published by Wiley, is an academic journal on the presidency.
External links
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- United States Presidents Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
The president of the United States POTUS is the head of state and head of government of the United States The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander in chief of the United States Armed Forces President of the United StatesPresidential sealPresidential flagIncumbent Donald Trumpsince January 20 2025Executive branch of the U S government Executive Office of the PresidentStyleMr President informal The Honorable formal His Excellency diplomatic TypeHead of state Head of government Commander in chiefAbbreviationPOTUSMember ofCabinet Domestic Policy Council National Economic Council National Security CouncilResidenceWhite HouseSeatWashington D C AppointerElectoral College or via successionTerm lengthFour years renewable onceConstituting instrumentConstitution of the United States 1789 FormationMarch 4 1789 235 years ago 1789 03 04 First holderGeorge WashingtonSalary 400 000 per yearWebsitewhitehouse gov The power of the presidency has grown substantially since the first president George Washington took office in 1789 While presidential power has ebbed and flowed over time the presidency has played an increasingly significant role in American political life since the beginning of the 20th century carrying over into the 21st century with notable expansions during the presidencies of Franklin D Roosevelt and George W Bush In modern times the president is one of the world s most powerful political figures and the leader of the world s only remaining superpower As the leader of the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP the president possesses significant domestic and international hard and soft power For much of the 20th century especially during the Cold War the U S president was often called the leader of the free world Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government and vests executive power in the president The power includes the execution and enforcement of federal law and the responsibility to appoint federal executive diplomatic regulatory and judicial officers Based on constitutional provisions empowering the president to appoint and receive ambassadors and conclude treaties with foreign powers and on subsequent laws enacted by Congress the modern presidency has primary responsibility for conducting U S foreign policy The role includes responsibility for directing the world s most expensive military which has the second largest nuclear arsenal The president also plays a leading role in federal legislation and domestic policymaking As part of the system of separation of powers Article I Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation Since modern presidents are typically viewed as leaders of their political parties major policymaking is significantly shaped by the outcome of presidential elections with presidents taking an active role in promoting their policy priorities to members of Congress who are often electorally dependent on the president In recent decades presidents have also made increasing use of executive orders agency regulations and judicial appointments to shape domestic policy The president is elected indirectly through the Electoral College to a four year term along with the vice president Under the Twenty second Amendment ratified in 1951 no person who has been elected to two presidential terms may be elected to a third In addition nine vice presidents have become president by virtue of a president s intra term death or resignation In all 45 individuals have served 47 presidencies spanning 60 four year terms Donald Trump is the 47th and current president since January 20 2025 History and developmentOrigins During the American Revolutionary War the Thirteen Colonies represented by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia declared themselves to be independent sovereign states and no longer under British rule The affirmation was made in the Declaration of Independence which was written predominantly by Thomas Jefferson and adopted unanimously on July 4 1776 by the Second Continental Congress Recognizing the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British the Continental Congress simultaneously began the process of drafting a constitution that would bind the states together There were long debates on a number of issues including representation and voting and the exact powers to be given the central government Congress finished work on the Articles of Confederation to establish a perpetual union between the states in November 1777 and sent it to the states for ratification Under the Articles which took effect on March 1 1781 the Congress of the Confederation was a central political authority without any legislative power It could make its own resolutions determinations and regulations but not any laws and could not impose any taxes or enforce local commercial regulations upon its citizens This institutional design reflected how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire The states were out from under any monarchy and assigned some formerly royal prerogatives e g making war receiving ambassadors etc to Congress the remaining prerogatives were lodged within their own respective state governments The members of Congress elected a president of the United States in Congress Assembled to preside over its deliberation as a neutral discussion moderator Unrelated to and quite dissimilar from the later office of president of the United States it was a largely ceremonial position without much influence In 1783 the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies With peace at hand the states each turned toward their own internal affairs By 1786 Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak and their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another They witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates and their foreign financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest Civil and political unrest loomed Events such as the Newburgh Conspiracy and Shays Rebellion demonstrated that the Articles of Confederation were not working Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785 Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states set for September 1786 in Annapolis Maryland with an aim toward resolving further reaching interstate commercial antagonisms When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states Alexander Hamilton of New York led the Annapolis delegates in a call for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles to be held the next spring in Philadelphia Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington s attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia When the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787 the 12 state delegations in attendance Rhode Island did not send delegates brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers elected annually by the legislature to a single term only sharing power with an executive council and countered by a strong legislature New York offered the greatest exception having a strong unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three year term and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter It was through the closed door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U S Constitution emerged 1789 1933 George Washington the first president of the United States As the nation s first president George Washington established many norms that would come to define the office His decision to retire after two terms helped address fears that the nation would devolve into monarchy and established a precedent that would not be broken until 1940 and would eventually be made permanent by the Twenty Second Amendment By the end of his presidency political parties had developed with John Adams defeating Thomas Jefferson in 1796 the first truly contested presidential election After Jefferson defeated Adams in 1800 he and his fellow Virginians James Madison and James Monroe would each serve two terms eventually dominating the nation s politics during the Era of Good Feelings until Adams son John Quincy Adams won election in 1824 after the Democratic Republican Party split The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 was a significant milestone as Jackson was not part of the Virginia and Massachusetts elite that had held the presidency for its first 40 years Jacksonian democracy sought to strengthen the presidency at the expense of Congress while broadening public participation as the nation rapidly expanded westward However his successor Martin Van Buren became unpopular after the Panic of 1837 and the death of William Henry Harrison and subsequent poor relations between John Tyler and Congress led to further weakening of the office Including Van Buren in the 24 years between 1837 and 1861 six presidential terms would be filled by eight different men with none serving two terms The Senate played an important role during this period with the Great Triumvirate of Henry Clay Daniel Webster and John C Calhoun playing key roles in shaping national policy in the 1830s and 1840s until debates over slavery began pulling the nation apart in the 1850s Abraham Lincoln s leadership during the Civil War has led historians to regard him as one of the nation s greatest presidents The circumstances of the war and Republican domination of Congress made the office very powerful and Lincoln s re election in 1864 was the first time a president had been re elected since Jackson in 1832 After Lincoln s assassination his successor Andrew Johnson lost all political support and was nearly removed from office with Congress remaining powerful during the two term presidency of Civil War general Ulysses S Grant After the end of Reconstruction Grover Cleveland would eventually become the first Democratic president elected since before the war running in three consecutive elections 1884 1888 1892 and winning twice In 1900 William McKinley became the first incumbent to win re election since Grant in 1872 After McKinley s assassination by Leon Czolgosz in 1901 Theodore Roosevelt became a dominant figure in American politics Historians believe Roosevelt permanently changed the political system by strengthening the presidency with some key accomplishments including breaking up trusts conservationism labor reforms making personal character as important as the issues and hand picking his successor William Howard Taft The following decade Woodrow Wilson led the nation to victory during World War I although Wilson s proposal for the League of Nations was rejected by the Senate Warren Harding while popular in office would see his legacy tarnished by scandals especially Teapot Dome and Herbert Hoover quickly became very unpopular after failing to alleviate the Great Depression Imperial presidency President Franklin D Roosevelt delivers a radio address in 1933 The ascendancy of Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933 led further toward what historians now describe as the Imperial presidency Backed by enormous Democratic majorities in Congress and public support for major change Roosevelt s New Deal dramatically increased the size and scope of the federal government including more executive agencies 211 12 The traditionally small presidential staff was greatly expanded with the Executive Office of the President being created in 1939 none of whom require Senate confirmation 229 231 Roosevelt s unprecedented re election to a third and fourth term the victory of the United States in World War II and the nation s growing economy all helped established the office as a position of global leadership 269 His successors Harry Truman and Dwight D Eisenhower each served two terms as the Cold War led the presidency to be viewed as the leader of the free world while John F Kennedy was a youthful and popular leader who benefited from the rise of television in the 1960s After Lyndon B Johnson lost popular support due to the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon s presidency collapsed in the Watergate scandal Congress enacted a series of reforms intended to reassert itself These included the War Powers Resolution enacted over Nixon s veto in 1973 and the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 that sought to strengthen congressional fiscal powers By 1976 Gerald Ford conceded that the historic pendulum had swung toward Congress raising the possibility of a disruptive erosion of his ability to govern Ford failed to win election to a full term and his successor Jimmy Carter failed to win re election Ronald Reagan who had been an actor before beginning his political career used his talent as a communicator to help reshape the American agenda away from New Deal policies toward more conservative ideology After the Cold War the United States became the world s undisputed leading power Bill Clinton George W Bush and Barack Obama each served two terms as president Meanwhile the nation gradually became more politically polarized leading to the ascendency of increasingly polarized Congressmembers especially following the 1994 mid term elections which saw Republicans control the House for the first time in 40 years and the rise of routine filibusters in the Senate Recent presidents have thus increasingly focused on executive orders agency regulations and judicial appointments to implement major policies at the expense of legislation and congressional power Presidential elections in the 21st century have reflected this continuing polarization with no candidate except Obama in 2008 winning by more than five percent of the popular vote and two George W Bush 2000 and Donald Trump 2016 winning in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote Bush 2004 and Trump 2024 were later re elected winning both in the Electoral College and the popular vote Critics of presidency s evolution The nation s Founding Fathers expected the Congress which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution to be the dominant branch of government however they did not expect a strong executive department However presidential power has shifted over time which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful unchecked unbalanced and monarchist in nature In 2008 professor Dana D Nelson expressed belief that presidents over the previous thirty years worked towards undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies She criticized proponents of the unitary executive theory for expanding the many existing uncheckable executive powers such as executive orders decrees memorandums proclamations national security directives and legislative signing statements that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid interference or consent from Congress Bill Wilson board member of Americans for Limited Government opined that the expanded presidency was the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule Legislative powersArticle I Section 1 of the Constitution vests all lawmaking power in Congress s hands and Article 1 Section 6 Clause 2 prevents the president and all other executive branch officers from simultaneously being a member of Congress Nevertheless the modern presidency exerts significant power over legislation both due to constitutional provisions and historical developments over time Signing and vetoing bills President Lyndon B Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act at the White House on July 2 1964 as Martin Luther King Jr and others look on The president s most significant legislative power derives from the Presentment Clause which gives the president the power to veto any bill passed by Congress While Congress can override a presidential veto it requires a two thirds vote of both houses which is usually very difficult to achieve except for widely supported bipartisan legislation The framers of the Constitution feared that Congress would seek to increase its power and enable a tyranny of the majority so giving the indirectly elected president a veto was viewed as an important check on the legislative power While George Washington believed the veto should only be used in cases where a bill was unconstitutional it is now routinely used in cases where presidents have policy disagreements with a bill The veto or threat of a veto has thus evolved to make the modern presidency a central part of the American legislative process Specifically under the Presentment Clause once a bill has been presented by Congress the president has three options Sign the legislation within ten days excluding Sundays the bill becomes law Veto the legislation within the above timeframe and return it to the house of Congress from which it originated expressing any objections the bill does not become law unless both houses of Congress vote to override the veto by a two thirds vote Take no action on the legislation within the above timeframe the bill becomes law as if the president had signed it unless Congress is adjourned at the time in which case it does not become law which is known as a pocket veto In 1996 Congress attempted to enhance the president s veto power with the Line Item Veto Act The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill particularly any new spending any amount of discretionary spending or any new limited tax benefit Congress could then repass that particular item If the president then vetoed the new legislation Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means a two thirds vote in both houses In Clinton v City of New York 524 U S 417 1998 the U S Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional Setting the agenda President Donald Trump delivers his 2018 State of the Union Address before Congress For most of American history candidates for president have sought election on the basis of a promised legislative agenda Article II Section 3 Clause 2 requires the president to recommend such measures to Congress which the president deems necessary and expedient This is done through the constitutionally based State of the Union address which usually outlines the president s legislative proposals for the coming year and through other formal and informal communications with Congress The president can be involved in crafting legislation by suggesting requesting or even insisting that Congress enact laws that the president believes are needed Additionally the president can attempt to shape legislation during the legislative process by exerting influence on individual members of Congress Presidents possess this power because the Constitution is silent about who can write legislation but the power is limited because only members of Congress can introduce legislation The president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress Additionally the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made Promulgating regulations Many laws enacted by Congress do not address every possible detail and either explicitly or implicitly delegate powers of implementation to an appropriate federal agency As the head of the executive branch presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress In the 20th century critics charged that too many legislative and budgetary powers that should have belonged to Congress had slid into the hands of presidents One critic charged that presidents could appoint a virtual army of czars each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an increasingly swollen executive branch and the eclipse of Congress Convening and adjourning Congress To allow the government to act quickly in case of a major domestic or international crisis arising when Congress is not in session the president is empowered by Article II Section 3 of the Constitution to call a special session of one or both houses of Congress Since John Adams first did so in 1797 the president has called the full Congress to convene for a special session on 27 occasions Harry S Truman was the most recent to do so in July 1948 known as the Turnip Day Session In addition prior to ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933 which brought forward the date on which Congress convenes from December to January newly inaugurated presidents would routinely call the Senate to meet to confirm nominations or ratify treaties In practice the power has fallen into disuse in the modern era as Congress now formally remains in session year round convening pro forma sessions every three days even when ostensibly in recess Correspondingly the president is authorized to adjourn Congress if the House and Senate cannot agree on the time of adjournment no president has ever had to exercise this power Executive powersSuffice it to say that the President is made the sole repository of the executive powers of the United States and the powers entrusted to him as well as the duties imposed upon him are awesome indeed Nixon v General Services Administration 433 U S 425 1977 Rehnquist J dissenting The president is head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to take care that the laws be faithfully executed The executive branch has over four million employees including the military Administrative powers Presidents make political appointments An incoming president may make up to 4 000 upon taking office 1 200 of which must be confirmed by the U S Senate Ambassadors members of the Cabinet and various officers are among the positions filled by presidential appointment with Senate confirmation The power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue Generally a president may remove executive officials at will However Congress can curtail and constrain a president s authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute To manage the growing federal bureaucracy presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States Within the Executive Office the president s innermost layer of aides and their assistants are located in the White House Office The president also possesses the power to manage operations of the federal government by issuing various types of directives such as presidential proclamation and executive orders When the president is lawfully exercising one of the constitutionally conferred presidential responsibilities the scope of this power is broad Even so these directives are subject to judicial review by U S federal courts which can find them to be unconstitutional Congress can overturn an executive order through legislation Foreign affairs President George H W Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the 1990 Chemical Weapons Accord at the White House Article II Section 3 Clause 4 requires the president to receive Ambassadors This clause known as the Reception Clause has been interpreted to imply that the president possesses broad power over matters of foreign policy and to provide support for the president s exclusive authority to grant recognition to a foreign government The Constitution also empowers the president to appoint United States ambassadors and to propose and chiefly negotiate agreements between the United States and other countries Such agreements upon receiving the advice and consent of the U S Senate by a two thirds majority vote become binding with the force of federal law While foreign affairs has always been a significant element of presidential responsibilities advances in technology since the Constitution s adoption have increased presidential power Where formerly ambassadors were vested with significant power to independently negotiate on behalf of the United States presidents now routinely meet directly with leaders of foreign countries Commander in chief Abraham Lincoln the 16th president successfully preserved the Union during the American Civil War Here he is photographed with Union Army general George B McClellan and soldiers at Antietam on October 3 1862 One of the most important of executive powers is the president s role as commander in chief of the United States Armed Forces The power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress but the president has ultimate responsibility for the direction and disposition of the military The exact degree of authority that the Constitution grants to the president as commander in chief has been the subject of much debate throughout history with Congress at various times granting the president wide authority and at others attempting to restrict that authority The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president s powers regarding the military Alexander Hamilton explained this in Federalist No 69 The President is to be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces while that the power of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies all of which would appertain to the legislature Emphasis in the original In the modern era pursuant to the War Powers Resolution Congress must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed rendering it ineffectual Additionally Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation Presidents have historically initiated the process for going to war but critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations including Theodore Roosevelt s military move into Panama in 1903 the Korean War the Vietnam War and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989 The amount of military detail handled personally by the president in wartime has varied greatly George Washington the first U S president firmly established military subordination under civilian authority In 1794 Washington used his constitutional powers to assemble 12 000 militia to quell the Whiskey Rebellion a conflict in Western Pennsylvania involving armed farmers and distillers who refused to pay an excise tax on spirits According to historian Joseph Ellis this was the first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field though James Madison briefly took control of artillery units in defense of Washington D C during the War of 1812 Abraham Lincoln was deeply involved in overall strategy and in day to day operations during the American Civil War 1861 1865 historians have given Lincoln high praise for his strategic sense and his ability to select and encourage commanders such as Ulysses S Grant The present day operational command of the Armed Forces is delegated to the Department of Defense and is normally exercised through the secretary of defense The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combatant Commands assist with the operation as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan UCP Judicial powersThis section needs to be updated The reason given is The case Trump v United States 2024 Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information July 2024 President Joe Biden with his Supreme Court appointee Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Vice President Kamala Harris in background following Brown Jackson s 2022 United States Senate confirmation The president has the power to nominate federal judges including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States However these nominations require Senate confirmation before they may take office Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance When nominating judges to U S district courts presidents often respect the long standing tradition of senatorial courtesy Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon a month after taking office Presidents often grant pardons shortly before leaving office like when Bill Clinton pardoned Patty Hearst on his last day in office this is often controversial Two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy The first is executive privilege which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties George Washington first claimed the privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay s notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain While not enshrined in the Constitution or any other law Washington s action created the precedent for the privilege When Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal the Supreme Court ruled in United States v Nixon 418 U S 683 1974 that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution When Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v Jones 520 U S 681 1997 that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined Additionally federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president The state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v United States 92 U S 105 1876 when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy However the privilege was not formally recognized by the U S Supreme Court until United States v Reynolds 345 U S 1 1953 where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege Before the September 11 attacks use of the privilege had been rare but increasing in frequency Since 2001 the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims as in the Ninth Circuit s ruling in Mohamed v Jeppesen Dataplan Inc Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions The degree to which the president personally has absolute immunity from court cases is contested and has been the subject of several Supreme Court decisions Nixon v Fitzgerald 1982 dismissed a civil lawsuit against by then former president Richard Nixon based on his official actions Clinton v Jones 1997 decided that a president has no immunity against civil suits for actions taken before becoming president and ruled that a sexual harassment suit could proceed without delay even against a sitting president The 2019 Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election detailed evidence of possible obstruction of justice but investigators declined to refer Donald Trump for prosecution based on a United States Department of Justice policy against indicting an incumbent president The report noted that impeachment by Congress was available as a remedy As of October 2019 a case was pending in the federal courts regarding access to personal tax returns in a criminal case brought against Donald Trump by the New York County District Attorney alleging violations of New York state law Memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel issued in 1973 and 2000 internally prohibit the Department of Justice from prosecuting a president which some legal scholars have criticized but others have endorsed In defense against federal criminal prosecution for his alleged 2020 election subversion in January 2024 Trump argued to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that a president enjoys absolute immunity for criminal acts conducted while in office The next month a three judge panel of the court unanimously ruled against Trump It was the first time an appeals court had addressed such a presidential immunity matter since no other sitting or former president had ever been criminally indicted In Trump v United States on July 1 2024 the Supreme Court ruled that presidents were entitled to absolute immunity from exercising core powers enumerated by the Constitution presumption of immunity for other official acts and no immunity for unofficial actions The case was sent back to lower courts to determine which actions in the criminal complaint should be classified as official vs unofficial The ruling was the first time the courts granted a president criminal immunity Leadership rolesHead of state Four ruffles and flourishes and Hail to the Chief long version source source track Problems playing this file See media help As head of state the president represents the United States government to its own people and represents the nation to the rest of the world For example during a state visit by a foreign head of state the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn a custom begun by John F Kennedy in 1961 This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening President Woodrow Wilson throws out the ceremonial first ball on Opening Day in 1916President Bill Clinton reviews honor guards at Buckingham Palace during a 1995 state visit to the UK As a national leader the president also fulfills many less formal ceremonial duties For example William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium Washington D C on the Washington Senators s Opening Day Every president since Taft except for Jimmy Carter threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day the All Star Game or the World Series usually with much fanfare Every president since Theodore Roosevelt has served as honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America Other presidential traditions are associated with American holidays Rutherford B Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S Truman administration every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation held at the White House Since 1989 when the custom of pardoning the turkey was formalized by George H W Bush the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life Presidential traditions also involve the president s role as head of government Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president The modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation s premier celebrities Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves One critic described the presidency as propagandized leadership which has a mesmerizing power surrounding the office Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras One critic wrote the image of John F Kennedy was described as carefully framed in rich detail which drew on the power of myth regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions As a result some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents voters expect a president to drive the economy vanquish enemies lead the free world comfort tornado victims heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit card fees Head of party The president is typically considered to be the head of their political party Since the entire House of Representatives and at least one third of the Senate is elected simultaneously with the president candidates from a political party inevitably have their electoral success intertwined with the performance of the party s presidential candidate The coattail effect or lack thereof will also often impact a party s candidates at state and local levels of government as well However there are often tensions between a president and others in the party with presidents who lose significant support from their party s caucus in Congress generally viewed to be weaker and less effective Global leader With the rise of the United States as a superpower in the 20th century and the United States having the world s largest economy into the 21st century the president is typically viewed as a global leader and at times the world s most powerful political figure The position of the United States as the leading member of NATO and the country s strong relationships with other wealthy or democratic nations like those comprising the European Union have led to the moniker that the president is the leader of the free world Selection processEligibility Article II Section 1 Clause 5 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for holding the presidency To serve as president one must be a natural born citizen of the United States be at least 35 years old be a resident in the United States for at least 14 years A person who meets the above qualifications would however still be disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions Under Article I Section 3 Clause 7 having been impeached convicted and disqualified from holding further public office although there is some legal debate as to whether the disqualification clause also includes the presidential office the only previous persons disqualified under this clause were three federal judges Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution and later rebelled against the United States is eligible to hold any office However this disqualification can be lifted by a two thirds vote of each house of Congress There is again some debate as to whether the clause as written allows disqualification from the presidential position or whether it would first require litigation outside of Congress although there is precedent for use of this amendment outside of the original intended purpose of excluding Confederates from public office after the Civil War Under the Twenty second Amendment no person can be elected president more than twice The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president the former can only be elected president once Campaigns and nomination President Jimmy Carter left debates Republican nominee Ronald Reagan on October 28 1980 during the 1980 U S presidential campaign The modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions where the most successful candidate is made the party s presidential nominee Typically the party s presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee and this choice is rubber stamped by the convention The most common previous profession of presidents is lawyer Nominees participate in nationally televised debates and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees third party candidates may be invited such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views convince voters and solicit contributions Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives Election Map of the United States showing the number of electoral votes allocated following the 2020 census to each state and the District of Columbia for the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections 270 electoral votes are required for a majority out of 538 votes possible The president is elected indirectly by the voters of each state and the District of Columbia through the Electoral College a body of electors formed every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president to concurrent four year terms As prescribed by Article II Section 1 Clause 2 each state is entitled to a number of electors equal to the size of its total delegation in both houses of Congress Additionally the Twenty third Amendment provides that the District of Columbia is entitled to the number it would have if it were a state but in no case more than that of the least populous state Currently all states and the District of Columbia select their electors based on a popular election In all but two states the party whose presidential vice presidential ticket receives a plurality of popular votes in the state has its entire slate of elector nominees chosen as the state s electors Maine and Nebraska deviate from this winner take all practice awarding two electors to the statewide winner and one to the winner in each congressional district On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December about six weeks after the election the electors convene in their respective state capitals and in Washington D C to vote for president and on a separate ballot for vice president They typically vote for the candidates of the party that nominated them While there is no constitutional mandate or federal law requiring them to do so the District of Columbia and 32 states have laws requiring that their electors vote for the candidates to whom they are pledged The constitutionality of these laws was upheld in Chiafalo v Washington 2020 Following the vote each state then sends a certified record of their electoral votes to Congress The votes of the electors are opened and counted during a joint session of Congress held in the first week of January If a candidate has received an absolute majority of electoral votes for president currently 270 of 538 that person is declared the winner Otherwise the House of Representatives must meet to elect a president using a contingent election procedure in which representatives voting by state delegation with each state casting a single vote choose between the top three electoral vote getters for president To win the presidency a candidate must receive the votes of an absolute majority of states currently 26 of 50 There have been two contingent presidential elections in the nation s history A 73 73 electoral vote tie between Thomas Jefferson and fellow Democratic Republican Aaron Burr in the election of 1800 necessitated the first Conducted under the original procedure established by Article II Section 1 Clause 3 of the Constitution which stipulates that if two or three persons received a majority vote and an equal vote the House of Representatives would choose one of them for president the runner up would become vice president On February 17 1801 Jefferson was elected president on the 36th ballot and Burr elected vice president Afterward the system was overhauled through the Twelfth Amendment in time to be used in the 1804 election A quarter century later the choice for president again devolved to the House when no candidate won an absolute majority of electoral votes 131 of 261 in the election of 1824 Under the Twelfth Amendment the House was required to choose a president from among the top three electoral vote recipients Andrew Jackson John Quincy Adams and William H Crawford Held February 9 1825 this second and most recent contingent election resulted in John Quincy Adams being elected president on the first ballot Inauguration Pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment the four year term of office for both the president and the vice president begins at noon on January 20 in the year following the preceding presidential election The first presidential and vice presidential terms to begin on this date known as Inauguration Day were the second terms of President Franklin D Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner in 1937 Previously Inauguration Day was on March 4 As a result of the date change the first term 1933 37 of both men had been shortened by 43 days Before executing the powers of the office a president is required to recite the presidential Oath of Office found in Article II Section 1 Clause 8 of the Constitution This is the only component in the inauguration ceremony mandated by the Constitution I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States Presidents have traditionally placed one hand upon a Bible while taking the oath and have added So help me God to the end of the oath Although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths presidents are traditionally sworn in by the chief justice of the United States IncumbencyTerm limit President William McKinley and his vice presidential running mate New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt c 1900Franklin D Roosevelt won a record four presidential elections in 1932 1936 1940 and 1944 prior to the implementation of the 22nd amendment in 1951 which instituted a two term limit When the first president George Washington announced in his Farewell Address that he was not running for a third term he established a two terms then out precedent Precedent became tradition after Thomas Jefferson publicly embraced the principle a decade later during his second term as did his two immediate successors James Madison and James Monroe In spite of the strong two term tradition Ulysses S Grant sought nomination at the 1880 Republican National Convention for a non consecutive third term but was unsuccessful In 1940 after leading the nation through the Great Depression and focused on supporting U S allied nations at war with the Axis powers Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term breaking the long standing precedent Four years later with the U S engaged in World War II he was re elected again despite his declining physical health he died 82 days into his fourth term on April 12 1945 In response to the unprecedented length of Roosevelt s presidency the Twenty second Amendment was adopted in 1951 The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice or once if that person served more than two years 24 months of another president s four year term Harry S Truman the president at the time it was submitted to the states by the Congress was exempted from its limitations Without the exemption he would not have been eligible to run for a second full term in 1952 which he briefly sought as he had served nearly all of Franklin Roosevelt s unexpired 1945 1949 term and had been elected to a full four year term beginning in 1949 Vacancies and succession Under Section 1 of the Twenty fifth Amendment ratified in 1967 the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office death or resignation of the president Deaths have occurred a number of times resignation has occurred only once and removal from office has never occurred Before the ratification of the Twenty fifth amendment which clarified the matter of succession Article II Section 1 Clause 6 stated only that the vice president assumes the powers and duties of the presidency in the event of a president s removal death resignation or inability Under this clause there was ambiguity about whether the vice president would actually become president in the event of a vacancy or simply act as president potentially resulting in a special election Upon the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841 Vice President John Tyler declared that he had succeeded to the office itself refusing to accept any papers addressed to the Acting President and Congress ultimately accepted it In the event of a double vacancy Article II Section 1 Clause 6 also authorizes Congress to declare who shall become acting president in the Case of Removal Death Resignation or Inability both of the president and vice president The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 codified as 3 U S C 19 provides that if both the president and vice president have left office or are both otherwise unavailable to serve during their terms of office the presidential line of succession follows the order of speaker of the House then if necessary the president pro tempore of the Senate and then if necessary the eligible heads of federal executive departments who form the president s cabinet The cabinet currently has 15 members of which the secretary of state is first in line the other Cabinet secretaries follow in the order in which their department or the department of which their department is the successor was created Those individuals who are constitutionally ineligible to be elected to the presidency are also disqualified from assuming the powers and duties of the presidency through succession No statutory successor has yet been called upon to act as president Declarations of inability Under the Twenty fifth Amendment the president may temporarily transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president who then becomes acting president by transmitting to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate a statement that he is unable to discharge his duties The president resumes his or her powers upon transmitting a second declaration stating that he is again able The mechanism has been used by Ronald Reagan once George W Bush twice and Joe Biden once each in anticipation of surgery The Twenty fifth Amendment also provides that the vice president together with a majority of certain members of the Cabinet may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate to the effect that the president is unable to discharge his or her powers and duties If the president then declares that no such inability exist he or she resumes the presidential powers unless the vice president and Cabinet make a second declaration of presidential inability in which case Congress decides the question Removal Article II Section 4 of the Constitution allows for the removal of high federal officials including the president from office for treason bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors Article I Section 2 Clause 5 authorizes the House of Representatives to serve as a grand jury with the power to impeach said officials by a majority vote Article I Section 3 Clause 6 authorizes the Senate to serve as a court with the power to remove impeached officials from office by a two thirds vote to convict Three presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives Andrew Johnson in 1868 Bill Clinton in 1998 and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021 none have been convicted by the Senate Additionally the House Judiciary Committee conducted an impeachment inquiry against Richard Nixon in 1973 74 and reported three articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives for final action however he resigned from office before the House voted on them Circumvention of authority Controversial measures have sometimes been taken short of removal to deal with perceived recklessness on the part of the president or with a long term disability In some cases staff have intentionally failed to deliver messages to or from the president typically to avoid executing or promoting the president to write certain orders This has ranged from Richard Nixon s Chief of Staff not transmitting orders to the Cabinet due to the president s heavy drinking to staff removing memos from Donald Trump s desk Decades before the Twenty fifth Amendment in 1919 President Woodrow Wilson had a stroke that left him partly incapacitated First lady Edith Wilson kept this condition a secret from the public for a while and controversially became the sole gatekeeper for access to the president aside from his doctor assisting him with paperwork and deciding which information was important enough to share with him Compensation Presidential pay historyYear established Salary Salary in 2023 USD1789 25 000 639 3621873 50 000 1 271 6671909 75 000 2 543 3331949 100 000 1 280 5591969 200 000 1 661 7062001 400 000 688 292Sources Since 2001 the president s annual salary has been 400 000 along with a 50 000 expense allowance a 100 000 nontaxable travel account and a 19 000 entertainment clarification needed account The president s salary is set by Congress and under Article II Section 1 Clause 7 of the Constitution any increase or reduction in presidential salary cannot take effect before the next presidential term of office Residence The Executive Residence of the White House in Washington D C is the official residence of the president The site was selected by George Washington and the cornerstone was laid in 1792 Every president since John Adams in 1800 has lived there At various times in U S history it has been known as the President s Palace the President s House and the Executive Mansion Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901 The federal government pays for state dinners and other official functions but the president pays for personal family and guest dry cleaning and food Camp David officially titled Naval Support Facility Thurmont a mountain based military camp in Frederick County Maryland is the president s country residence A place of solitude and tranquility the site has been used extensively to host foreign dignitaries since the 1940s The President s Guest House located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park serves as the president s official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed Four interconnected 19th century houses Blair House Lee House and 700 and 704 Jackson Place with a combined floor space exceeding 70 000 square feet 6 500 m2 constitute the property Presidential residences White House the official residence Camp David in Frederick County Maryland the official retreat Blair House the official guest houseTravel The primary means of long distance air travel for the president is one of two identical Boeing VC 25 aircraft which are extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board although any U S Air Force aircraft the president is aboard is designated as Air Force One for the duration of the flight In country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both one primary and one backup The president also has access to smaller Air Force aircraft most notably the Boeing C 32 which are used when the president must travel to airports that cannot support a jumbo jet Any civilian aircraft the president is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight For short distance air travel the president has access to a fleet of U S Marine Corps helicopters of varying models designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the president is actually aboard to any would be threats For ground travel the president uses the presidential state car which is an armored limousine designed to look like a Cadillac sedan but built on a truck chassis The U S Secret Service operates and maintains the fleet of several limousines The president also has access to two armored motorcoaches which are primarily used for touring trips Presidential transportation The presidential limousine dubbed The Beast The presidential plane called Air Force One when the president is on board The presidential helicopter known as Marine One when the president is aboardProtection President Ronald Reagan waves following his inauguration as the nation s 40th president on January 20 1981 The U S Secret Service is charged with protecting the president and the first family As part of their protection presidents first ladies their children and other immediate family members and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted today the names simply serve for purposes of brevity clarity and tradition Post presidencyFrom left to right Presidents George H W Bush Barack Obama George W Bush Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office on January 7 2009 Obama took office thirteen days later Activities Some former presidents have had significant careers after leaving office Prominent examples include William Howard Taft s tenure as chief justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover s work on government reorganization after World War II Grover Cleveland whose bid for reelection failed in 1888 was elected president again four years later in 1892 and Donald Trump whose bid for reelection failed in 2020 was elected president again four years later in 2024 Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives serving there for 17 years and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875 though he died soon after Some ex presidents were very active especially in international affairs most notably Theodore Roosevelt Herbert Hoover Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter Presidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman Jimmy Carter became a global human rights campaigner international arbiter and election monitor as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize Bill Clinton also worked as an informal ambassador most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea During his presidency George W Bush called on former presidents George H W Bush and Clinton to assist with humanitarian efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami President Obama followed suit by asking presidents Clinton and George W Bush to lead efforts to aid Haiti after an earthquake devastated that country in 2010 Clinton has been active politically since his presidential term ended working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his 2012 reelection campaign Obama has also been active politically since his presidential term ended having worked with his former vice president Joe Biden on his 2020 election campaign After losing his bid for the presidency in 2020 Trump remained politically active and was an outspoken critic of his successor and the Democratic Party He also contended with four criminal cases Trump announced his fourth bid to the presidency in 2022 ultimately becoming the nominee of his party for the third time and won a second presidential term in 2024 Pension and other benefits The Former Presidents Act FPA enacted in 1958 grants lifetime benefits to former presidents and their widows including a monthly pension medical care in military facilities health insurance and Secret Service protection also provided is funding for a certain number of staff and for office expenses The act has been amended several times to provide increases in presidential pensions and in the allowances for office staff The FPA excludes any president who was removed from office by impeachment According to a 2008 report by the Congressional Research Service Chief executives leaving office prior to 1958 often entered retirement pursuing various occupations and received no federal assistance When industrialist Andrew Carnegie announced a plan in 1912 to offer 25 000 annual pensions to former Presidents many Members of Congress deemed it inappropriate that such a pension would be provided by a private corporation executive That same year legislation was first introduced to create presidential pensions but it was not enacted In 1955 such legislation was considered by Congress because of former President Harry S Truman s financial limitations in hiring an office staff The pension has increased numerous times with congressional approval Retired presidents receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration s cabinet secretaries which was 199 700 per year in 2012 Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions The act also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges Prior to 1997 all former presidents their spouses and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president s death In 1997 Congress passed legislation limiting Secret Service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office On January 10 2013 President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime Secret Service protection for him George W Bush and all subsequent presidents A first spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for Secret Service protection Presidential libraries From left to right Presidents Barack Obama George W Bush Bill Clinton George H W Bush and Jimmy Carter at the dedication of the George W Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas in 2013 Every president since Herbert Hoover has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers records and other documents and materials Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration NARA the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private non federal sources There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education including The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum which is run by the State of Illinois The George W Bush Presidential Library and Museum which is run by Southern Methodist University The George H W Bush Presidential Library and Museum which is run by Texas A amp M University and The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum which is run by the University of Texas at Austin Several former presidents have overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries Some even made arrangements for their own burial at the site Several presidential libraries contain the graves of the president they document The Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence Missouri The Dwight D Eisenhower Presidential Library Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene Kansas The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda California and The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley California These gravesites are open to the general public Political affiliationPolitical parties have dominated American politics for most of the nation s history Though the Founding Fathers generally spurned political parties as divisive and disruptive and their rise had not been anticipated when the U S Constitution was drafted in 1787 organized political parties developed in the U S in the mid 1790s nonetheless They evolved from political factions which began to appear almost immediately after the Federal government came into existence Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as pro administration and would eventually form the Federalist Party while those in opposition largely joined the emerging Democratic Republican Party Greatly concerned about the very real capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight year presidency He was and remains the only U S president never to be affiliated with a political party Since Washington every U S president has been affiliated with a political party at the time of assuming office The number of presidents per political party by their affiliation at the time they were first sworn into office alphabetical by last name are Party Number of presidents Name s Republican 19 Chester A Arthur George H W Bush George W Bush Calvin Coolidge Dwight D Eisenhower Gerald Ford James A Garfield Ulysses S Grant Warren G Harding Benjamin Harrison Rutherford B Hayes Herbert Hoover Abraham Lincoln William McKinley Richard Nixon Ronald Reagan Theodore Roosevelt William Howard Taft and Donald Trump incumbent Democratic 15 Joe Biden James Buchanan Jimmy Carter Grover Cleveland Bill Clinton Andrew Jackson Lyndon B Johnson John F Kennedy Barack Obama Franklin Pierce James K Polk Franklin D Roosevelt Harry S Truman Martin Van Buren and Woodrow WilsonDemocratic Republican 4 John Quincy Adams Thomas Jefferson James Madison and James MonroeWhig 4 Millard Fillmore William Henry Harrison Zachary Taylor and John TylerFederalist 1 John AdamsNational Union 1 Andrew JohnsonNo party 1 George WashingtonTimeline of presidentsThe following timeline depicts the progression of the presidents and their political affiliation at the time of assuming office See alsoUnited States portalPolitics portalOutline of American politicsNotesIn addition to 100 000 in travel reimbursement 19 000 for entertainment and 50 000 for additional expenses The informal term POTUS originated in the Phillips Code a shorthand method created in 1879 by Walter P Phillips for the rapid transmission of press reports by telegraph The nine vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency upon their predecessor s death or resignation and served for the remainder of his term are John Tyler 1841 Millard Fillmore 1850 Andrew Johnson 1865 Chester A Arthur 1881 Theodore Roosevelt 1901 Calvin Coolidge 1923 Harry S Truman 1945 Lyndon B Johnson 1963 and Gerald Ford 1974 Grover Cleveland served two non consecutive terms and Donald Trump is currently serving his second non consecutive term so each is counted twice Nearly all scholars rank Lincoln among the nation s top three presidents with many placing him first See Historical rankings of presidents of the United States for a collection of survey results See List of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected for a second term as part of the National Union Party ticket with Democrat Andrew Johnson in 1864 Former Democrat John Tyler was elected vice president on the Whig Party ticket with Harrison in 1840 Tyler s policy priorities as president soon proved to be opposed to most of the Whig agenda and he was expelled from the party in September 1841 Democrat Andrew Johnson was elected vice president on the National Union Party ticket with Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1864 Later while president Johnson tried and failed to build a party of loyalists under the National Union banner Near the end of his presidency Johnson rejoined the Democratic Party References How to Address the President He Is Not Your Excellency or Your Honor But Mr President The New York Times The Washington Star August 2 1891 USGS Correspondence Handbook Chapter 4 United States Geological Survey July 18 2007 Archived from the original on September 26 2012 Retrieved November 15 2012 Models of Address and Salutation International Trade Administration Archived from the original on July 20 2010 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the ninth state for these ratifications were to be reported to Congress whose continuing existence was recognized by the Convention and who were requested to continue to exercise their powers for the purpose of bringing the new government into operation In fact Congress did continue to act as a government until it dissolved on the first of November by the successive disappearance of its members It existed potentially until March 2 the day preceding that on which the members of the new Congress were directed to assemble 18 U S 5 Wheat 420 422 1820 Maier Pauline 2010 Ratification The People Debate the Constitution 1787 1788 New York New York Simon amp Schuster p 433 ISBN 978 0 684 86854 7 March 4 A forgotten huge day in American history Philadelphia National Constitution Center March 4 2013 Archived from the original on February 24 2018 Retrieved July 29 2018 Presidential Election of 1789 Digital Encyclopedia Mount Vernon Virginia Mount Vernon Ladies Association Retrieved July 29 2018 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History Andrew Jackson and the Election of 1828 U S News amp World Report Retrieved September 14 2020 Bomboy Scott December 5 2017 Martin Van Buren s legacy Expert politician mediocre president National Constitution Center Retrieved September 14 2020 Freehling William October 4 2016 John Tyler Impact and Legacy University of Virginia Miller Center Retrieved September 14 2020 McNamara Robert July 3 2019 Seven Presidents Served in the 20 Years Before the Civil War ThoughtCo Retrieved September 14 2020 Heidler David Heidler Jeanne The Great Triumvirate Essential Civil War Curriculum Retrieved September 14 2020 Winters Michael Sean August 4 2017 Do not trust in princes the limits of politics National Catholic Reporter Retrieved September 14 2020 Williams Frank April 1 2011 Lincoln s War Powers Part Constitution Part Trust American Bar Association Retrieved September 14 2020 Weber Jennifer March 25 2013 Was Lincoln a Tyrant New York Times Opinionator Retrieved September 14 2020 Varon 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Nixon on Curb of War Powers Backers of Bill Win 3 Year Fight The New York Times Retrieved September 12 2020 Glass Andrew July 12 2017 Budget and Impoundment Control Act becomes law July 12 1974 Politico Retrieved September 12 2020 Shabecoff Philip March 28 1976 Presidency Is Found Weaker Under Ford The New York Times Retrieved September 9 2020 Edwards Lee February 5 2018 What Made Reagan a Truly Great Communicator The Heritage Foundation Retrieved September 12 2020 Brands H W What Reagan Learned from FDR History News Network Retrieved September 12 2020 Sorensen Theodore Fall 1992 America s First Post Cold War President Foreign Affairs 71 4 13 30 doi 10 2307 20045307 JSTOR 20045307 Barber Michael McCarty Nolan 2013 Causes and Consequences of Polarization Archived January 14 2021 at the Wayback Machine American Political Science Association Task Force on Negotiating Agreement in Politics report at 19 20 37 38 Rudalevige Andrew April 1 2014 The Letter of the Law Administrative Discretion and Obama s Domestic Unilateralism The Forum 12 1 29 59 doi 10 1515 for 2014 0023 S2CID 145237493 Kakutani Michiko July 6 2007 Unchecked and Unbalanced The New York Times Retrieved November 9 2009 the founding fathers had scant affection for strong executives like England s king and Bush White House s claims are rooted in ideas about the divine right of kings and that certainly did not find their way into our founding documents the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 1787 Sirota David August 22 2008 The Conquest of Presidentialism HuffPost Retrieved September 20 2009 Schimke David September October 2008 Presidential Power to the People Author Dana D Nelson on why democracy demands that the next President be taken down a notch Utne Reader Retrieved September 20 2009 Linker Ross September 27 2007 Critical of Presidency Prof Ginsberg and Crenson unite The Johns Hopkins Newsletter Retrieved November 9 2017 Presidents slowly but surely gain more and more power with both the public at large and other political institutions doing nothing to prevent it Kakutani Michiko July 6 2007 Unchecked and Unbalanced The New York Times Retrieved November 9 2009 Unchecked and Unbalanced Presidential Power in a Time of Terror By Frederick A O Schwarz Jr and Aziz Z Huq authors Nelson Dana D October 11 2008 Opinion The unitary executive question What do McCain and Obama think of the concept Los Angeles Times Retrieved September 21 2009 Shane Scott September 25 2009 A Critic Finds Obama Policies a Perfect Target The New York Times Retrieved November 8 2009 There is the small minority owned firm with deep ties to President Obama s Chicago backers made eligible by the Federal Reserve to handle potentially lucrative credit deals I want to know how these firms are picked and who picked them Mr Wilson the group s president tells his eager researchers Pfiffner James Essays on Article II Recommendations Clause The Heritage Guide to the Constitution The Heritage Foundation 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Congress Moot The Washington Post Retrieved September 28 2009 Forte David F Essays on Article II Convening of Congress The Heritage Guide to the Constitution Heritage Foundation Retrieved April 14 2019 Steinmetz Katy August 10 2010 Congressional Special Sessions Time Retrieved April 14 2019 Article II Section 3 U S Constitution Legal Information Institute 2012 Retrieved August 7 2012 Executive Branch whitehouse gov April 2015 Retrieved January 24 2020 via National Archives Presidentially Appointed Positions PDF Washington D C Partnership for Public Service April 14 2021 Retrieved March 7 2023 Biden Political Appointee Tracker The Washington Post Retrieved March 7 2023 See Shurtleff v United States 189 U S 311 1903 Myers v United States 272 U S 52 1926 See Humphrey s Executor v United States 295 U S 602 1935 and Morrison v Olson 487 U S 654 1988 respectively Gaziano Todd February 21 2001 Executive Summary The Use and Abuse of Executive Orders and Other Presidential Directives Washington D C The Heritage Foundation Retrieved January 23 2018 United States v Curtiss Wright Export Corp 299 U S 304 1936 characterized the President as the sole organ of the nation in its external relations an interpretation criticized by Louis Fisher of the Library of Congress Zivotofsky v Kerry 576 U S 2015 Ramsey Michael Vladeck Stephen Common Interpretation Commander in Chief Clause National Constitution Center Educational Resources some internal navigation required National Constitution Center Retrieved May 23 2017 Hamilton Alexander The Federalist 69 reposting Retrieved June 15 2007 Christopher James A Baker III July 8 2008 The National War Powers Commission Report The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia Archived from the original PDF on November 26 2010 Retrieved December 15 2010 No clear mechanism or requirement exists today for the president and Congress to consult The War Powers Resolution of 1973 contains only vague consultation requirements Instead it relies on reporting requirements that if triggered begin the clock running for Congress to approve the particular armed conflict By the terms of the 1973 Resolution however Congress need not act to disapprove the conflict the cessation of all hostilities is required in 60 to 90 days merely if Congress fails to act Many have criticized this aspect of the Resolution as unwise and unconstitutional and no president in the past 35 years has filed a report pursuant to these triggering provisions The Law The President s War Powers Time June 1 1970 Archived from the original on January 7 2008 Retrieved September 28 2009 Mitchell Alison May 2 1999 The World Only Congress Can Declare War Really It s True The New York Times Retrieved November 8 2009 Presidents have sent forces abroad more than 100 times Congress has declared war only five times the War of 1812 the Mexican War the Spanish American War World War I and World War II Mitchell Alison May 2 1999 The World Only Congress Can Declare War Really It s True The New York Times Retrieved November 8 2009 President Reagan told Congress of the invasion of Grenada two hours after he had ordered the landing He told Congressional leaders of the bombing of Libya while the aircraft were on their way Gordon Michael R December 20 1990 U S troops move in Panama in effort to seize Noriega gunfire is heard in capital The New York Times Retrieved November 8 2009 It was not clear whether the White House consulted with Congressional leaders about the military action or notified them in advance Thomas S Foley the Speaker of the House said on Tuesday night that he had not been alerted by the Administration Andrew J Polsky Elusive Victories The American Presidency at War Oxford University Press 2012 online review George Washington and the Evolution of the American Commander in Chief The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation James M McPherson Tried by War Abraham Lincoln As Commander in Chief 2009 DOD Releases Unified Command Plan 2011 United States Department of Defense April 8 2011 Archived from the original on May 13 2011 Retrieved February 25 2013 10 U S C 164 Joint Chiefs of Staff About the Joint Chiefs of Staff Retrieved February 25 2013 Johnston David December 24 1992 Bush Pardons Six in Iran Affair Aborting a Weinberger Trial Prosecutor Assails Cover Up The New York Times Retrieved November 8 2009 But not since President Gerald R Ford granted clemency to former President Richard M Nixon for possible crimes in Watergate has a Presidential pardon so pointedly raised the issue of whether the president was trying to shield officials for political purposes Johnston David December 24 1992 Bush Pardons Six in Iran Affair Aborting a Weinberger Trial Prosecutor Assails Cover Up The New York Times Retrieved November 8 2009 The prosecutor charged that Mr Weinberger s efforts to hide his notes may have forestalled impeachment proceedings against President Reagan and formed part of a pattern of deception and obstruction In light of President Bush s own misconduct we are gravely concerned about his decision to pardon others who lied to Congress and obstructed official investigations Eisler Peter March 7 2008 Clinton papers release blocked USA Today Retrieved November 8 2009 Former president Clinton issued 140 pardons on his last day in office including several to controversial figures such as commodities trader Rich then a fugitive on tax evasion charges Rich s ex wife Denise contributed 2 000 in 1999 to Hillary Clinton s Senate campaign 5 000 to a related political action committee and 450 000 to a fund set up to build the Clinton library Millhiser Ian June 1 2010 Executive Privilege 101 Center for American Progress Archived from the original on June 9 2010 Retrieved October 8 2010 Part III Mohamed v Jeppesen Dataplan Court case Retrieved November 29 2010 via FindLaw Frost Amanda Florence Justin 2009 Reforming the State Secrets Privilege American Constitution Society Retrieved November 9 2017 Weaver William G Pallitto Robert M 2005 State Secrets and Executive Power Political Science Quarterly 120 1 85 112 doi 10 1002 j 1538 165x 2005 tb00539 x Use of the state secrets privilege in courts has grown significantly over the last twenty five years In the twenty three years between the decision in Reynolds 1953 and the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976 there were four reported cases in which the government invoked the privilege Between 1977 and 2001 there were a total of fifty one reported cases in which courts ruled on invocation of the privilege Because reported cases represent only a fraction of the total cases in which the privilege is invoked or implicated it is unclear precisely how dramatically the use of the privilege has grown But the increase in reported cases is indicative of greater willingness to assert the privilege than in the past Savage Charlie September 8 2010 Court Dismisses a Case Asserting Torture by C I A The New York Times Retrieved October 8 2010 Finn Peter September 9 2010 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Parties of the Presidents Presidents USA Retrieved August 2 2018 Further readingEdwards George C and Thomas G Howell eds 2009 The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency Oxford University Press Kernell Samuel Jacobson Gary C 1987 Congress and the Presidency as News in the Nineteenth Century PDF Journal of Politics 49 4 1016 1035 doi 10 2307 2130782 JSTOR 2130782 S2CID 154834781 Howell William G 2023 The American Presidency An Institutional Approach to Executive Politics Princeton University Press Sigelman Lee Bullock David 1991 Candidates issues horse races and hoopla Presidential campaign coverage 1888 1988 PDF American Politics Quarterly 19 1 5 32 doi 10 1177 1532673x9101900101 S2CID 154283367 Tebbel John William and Sarah Miles Watts The Press and the Presidency From George Washington to Ronald Reagan Oxford University Press 1985 online review Waterman Richard W and Robert Wright The Image Is Everything Presidency Dilemmas in American Leadership Routledge 2018 Presidential Studies Quarterly published by Wiley is an academic journal on the presidency External linksPresident of the United States at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from WiktionaryMedia from CommonsNews from WikinewsQuotations from WikiquoteTexts from WikisourceTextbooks from WikibooksResources from WikiversityTravel information from WikivoyageData from Wikidata White House homepage United States Presidents Collection General Collection Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Yale University
