The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
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 strong role in American political life since the beginning of the 20th century, with a notable expansion during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In contemporary times, the president is also looked upon as one of the world's most powerful political figures as the leader of the only remaining global 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.
Article II of the Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government and vests the 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 checks and balances, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation. Since modern presidents are also typically viewed as the 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, eleven vice presidents have become president by virtue of a president's intra-term death or resignation. In all, 46 individuals have served 47 presidencies spanning 46 full four-year terms.
List of Presidents of the United States[]
Recent Presidents[]
Requirements[]
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the requirements to hold office. A president must:
- be a natural-born citizen of the United States; foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.
- be at least thirty-five years old. Theodore Roosevelt, 42, was the youngest president in US history.
- have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.
Election process and terms[]
The president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. A president must receive more than 270 electoral college votes in order to win an election. Ronald Reagan received 525 votes which is the most electoral votes of any other president.
A president can only serve two terms as president, which is 8 years. Franklin D. Roosevelt served four terms as president. He died while beginning his four term. After his death, congress passed an amendment which limits the power of terms a president can have.
William Henry Harrison served the shortest term, one month, because he died in office from pneumonia.
Inaugurations[]
A president officially becomes president after being inaugurated on January 20. The president must be given the oath of office by the Chief Justice of the United States. It is traditionally held at the United States Capitol.
Powers of the president[]
These powers include:
- Enforcing laws passed by the United States Congress
- Creating a Cabinet of advisors
- Giving pardons or reprieves
With the agreement of the United States Senate he or she can:
- Make treaties
- Choose ambassadors to foreign countries
- Select Judges, and Justices of the Supreme Court
Succession[]
Succession to or vacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.
Under Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day.
Under Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim. Section 4 has only been invoked once after the assassination attempt on President Underwood. At that time, Vice president Donald Blythe became acting president after securing the votes of the US cabinet.
The United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has occurred three times. Presidents Nixon, Walker, and Underwood each resigned the presidency due to each being embroiled in scandal.
Section 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped.
Traveling[]
A president travels by either traveling on Air Force One, Marine One, or by the Presidential state car. At all times, the president is protected by Secret Service agents. Sometimes, the president may travel to Camp David for either relaxation or to do some work in peace.
Presidential rankings[]
In political studies, surveys have been conducted in order to construct historical rankings of the success of the presidents of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults. Popular-opinion polls typically focus on recent or well-known presidents. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama generally appear toward the top of rankings, while James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Warren G. Harding, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, Garrett Walker, Frank Underwood, and Claire Hale generally appear at the bottom.
Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George Washington are most often listed as the three highest-rated presidents among historians. More recent presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are often rated among the greatest in public opinion polls, but generally do not rank as highly among presidential scholars and historians. Because William Henry Harrison and James A. Garfield both died within their first year in office, they are often omitted from presidential rankings. Zachary Taylor died after serving as president for only 16 months, but he is usually included. In the case of these three presidents, it is not clear whether they received low rankings due to their actions as president or because each was in office for such a limited time that they did not accomplish much.
Presidential libraries[]
Since Herbert Hoover, each president has created an institutional place known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system.
There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois.
Several presidential libraries contain the graves of the president such as Richard Nixon at his library in Yorba Linda, California and Ronald Reagan at his library in Simi Valley, California.
Presidents who served in the military[]
Of the 45 men and 1 woman elected president of the United States, 31 have had prior military service, while only 15 have had no prior military service.
Despite being commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces, prior military service is not a prerequisite for presidents of the United States.
Civil War-veteran presidents[]
After the American Civil War, whether a politician had fought greatly influenced the public's perception of his appropriateness for the presidency. After a spate of such veteran-presidents, that influence diminished before being eliminated.
World War II-veteran presidents[]
So great was the influence of World War II on US politics, Dwight D. Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election without any political experience. This halo effect of the second world war benefited the successful political campaigns of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter. After the 1988 United States presidential election however, the shine had dulled on military-veteran politicians, and through 2012, "the candidate with the better military record lost." George H. W. Bush was the last president to have served in combat (as an aircraft carrier-based bomber pilot in WWII).
Vietnam-veteran presidents[]
The 48-year tenure of veteran presidents after World War II was a result of that conflict's "pervasive effect […] on American society." In the late 1970s and 1980s, almost 60% of the United States Congress had served in World War II or the Korean War, and it was expected that a Vietnam veteran would eventually ascend to the presidency. Yet, in the chronology of "major conflicts" involving the United States, the Vietnam War is the first to not produce a veteran president, an event that veteran and author Matt Gallagher called "no small feat for a country spawned in armed revolution." By 2017, a "bamboo ceiling" was described as holding down and preventing those who served in Vietnam from becoming president.
Barack Obama's 2006 book The Audacity of Hope argued that baby boomers never left behind the anti-military psychodrama of the 1960s, and that played out in national politics. During Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, James Carville succeeded in releasing Clinton's 1969 letter that "outlined his opposition to the [Vietnam] war and his decision to try his chances with the draft." The positive effects of this release evidenced the diminished cachet of military service in presidential politics.
In 2015, journalist James Fallows described the contemporary American's attitude toward their military as "we love the troops, but we’d rather not think about them". Three years later, Gallagher noted that when given the opportunity to elect Vietnam veterans (Al Gore, McCain, and John Kerry), the US electorate declined. He called this emblematic of the public's "vague sense of gratitude for service members" that eschews interest or understanding: "'Thank you for your service,' but spare the details, please."
Asset[]
George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were all career soldiers who benefited from their popularity as successful wartime general officers. Áine Cain with Military.com called veteran presidents "fitting", given their responsibility at the head of the military's command hierarchy.
Detriment[]
Military service has also been a political millstone for individuals seeking the presidency.
George W. Bush's service with the Air National Guard was a point of political contention in his 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Kerry's tours in Vietnam were similarly questioned. McCain's 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns saw the retired captain's service used against him.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all received criticism for deploying the military into combat while having not served in that capacity themselves.