The
White House
, official residence of the president of the United States, in July 2008
The
president of the United States
is the
head of state
and
head of government
of the
United States
,
indirectly elected
to a four-year
term
via the
Electoral College
.
The officeholder leads the
executive branch
of the
federal government
and is the
commander-in-chief
of the
United States Armed Forces
.
Since the office was established in 1789, 45 men have served in 46 presidencies. The first president,
George Washington
, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College.
Grover Cleveland
served two non-consecutive terms and is therefore counted as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, giving rise to the discrepancy between the number of presidencies and the number of individuals who have served as president.
The presidency of
William Henry Harrison
, who died 31 days after taking office in 1841, was the shortest in American history.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945. He is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms.
Since the ratification of the
Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution
in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice, and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once.
[8]
Four presidents
died in office
of natural causes (William Henry Harrison,
Zachary Taylor
,
Warren G. Harding
, and Franklin D. Roosevelt), four were
assassinated
(
Abraham Lincoln
,
James A. Garfield
,
William McKinley
, and
John F. Kennedy
), and one resigned (
Richard Nixon
, facing
impeachment
and removal from office).
John Tyler
was the first
vice president
to assume the presidency during a presidential term, and set the precedent that a vice president who does so becomes the fully functioning president with his own administration.
Throughout most of its history,
American politics
has been dominated by
political parties
. The Constitution is silent on the issue of political parties, and at the time it came into force in 1789, no organized parties existed. Soon after the
1st Congress
convened,
political factions
began rallying around dominant
Washington administration
officials, such as
Alexander Hamilton
and
Thomas Jefferson
.
Concerned about the 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 affiliated with a political party.
The incumbent president is
Joe Biden
, who assumed office on January 20, 2021.
Presidents
See also
Notes
- ^
Presidents are numbered according to uninterrupted periods served by the same person. For example, George Washington served two consecutive terms and is counted as the first president (not the first and second). Upon the resignation of 37th president, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford became the 38th president even though he simply served out the remainder of Nixon's second term and was never elected to the presidency in his own right. Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd president and the 24th president because his two terms were not consecutive. A vice president who temporarily becomes
acting president
under the
Twenty-fifth Amendment
to the Constitution is not counted, because the president remains in office during such a period.
- ^
Reflects the president's political party at the start of their presidency. Changes during their time in office are noted. Also reflects the vice president's political party unless otherwise noted beside the individual's name.
- ^
Political parties had not been anticipated when the Constitution was drafted, nor did they exist at the time of the first presidential election in 1788?89. When they did develop, during Washington's first term, Adams joined the faction that became the
Federalist Party
. The elections of 1792 were the first ones in the United States that were contested on anything resembling a partisan basis.
- ^
The 1796 presidential election was the first contested American presidential election and the only one in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing political parties. Federalist John Adams was elected president, and Jefferson of the Democratic-Republicans was elected vice president.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
Died in office
- ^
Early during John Quincy Adams' term, the
Democratic-Republican Party
dissolved; his allies in Congress and at the state level were referred to as "Adams' Men" during the Adams presidency. When
Andrew Jackson
became president in 1829, this group became the "Anti-Jackson"
opposition
, and organized themselves as the
National Republican Party
.
- ^
John Calhoun, formerly a Democratic-Republican, founded the
Nullifier Party
in 1828 to oppose the
Tariff of 1828
and advance the cause of
states' rights
, but was brought on as Andrew Jackson's running mate in the 1828 presidential election in an effort to broaden the democratic coalition led by Jackson.
- ^
a
b
c
Resigned from office
- ^
John Tyler succeeded to the presidency upon the death of William Henry Harrison.
- ^
John Tyler was elected vice president on the Whig Party ticket in 1840. His policy priorities as president soon proved to be opposed to most of the Whig agenda, and he was expelled from the party five months after assuming office.
- ^
Millard Fillmore succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Zachary Taylor.
- ^
When he ran for reelection in 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln formed a bipartisan
electoral alliance
with
War Democrats
by selecting Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate, and running on the
National Union Party
ticket.
- ^
Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Abraham Lincoln.
- ^
While president, Andrew 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.
- ^
Chester A. Arthur succeeded to the presidency upon the death of James A. Garfield.
- ^
Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency upon the death of William McKinley.
- ^
Calvin Coolidge succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Warren G. Harding.
- ^
Harry S. Truman succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- ^
Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon the death of John F. Kennedy.
- ^
a
b
Appointed as vice president under terms of the
Twenty-fifth Amendment
, Section 2
- ^
Gerald Ford succeeded to the presidency upon the resignation of Richard Nixon.
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Online sources
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