Tradition credits Moses as the author of Genesis, as well as the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and most of Deuteronomy;
however, modern scholars, especially from the 19th century onward,
place the books' authorship in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, hundreds of
years after Moses is supposed to have lived. Based on scientific interpretation of archaeological, genetic, and linguistic evidence, most mainstream Bible scholars consider Genesis to be primarily mythological rather than historical.
It is divisible into two parts, the primeval history (chapters 1–11) and the ancestral history (chapters 12–50).
The primeval history sets out the author's concepts of the nature of
the deity and of humankind's relationship with its maker: God creates a
world which is good and fit for humans, but when man corrupts it with
sin God decides to destroy his creation, sparing only the righteous Noah and his family to re-establish the relationship between man and God. The ancestral history (chapters 12–50) tells of the prehistory of Israel, God's chosen people. At God's command, Noah's descendant Abraham journeys from his birthplace (described as Ur of the Chaldeans and whose identification with Sumerian Ur is tentative in modern scholarship) into the God-given land of Canaan, where he dwells as a sojourner, as does his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Jacob's name is changed to "Israel", and through the agency of his son Joseph, the children of Israel
descend into Egypt, 70 people in all with their households, and God
promises them a future of greatness. Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt,
ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus (departure). The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, successively narrowing in scope from all humankind (the covenant with Noah) to a special relationship with one people alone (Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob).
In Judaism, the theological importance of Genesis centres on the covenants linking God to his chosen people and the people to the Promised Land.
The name Genesis is from the Latin Vulgate, in turn borrowed or transliterated from GreekΓένεσις, meaning 'origin'; Biblical Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית, romanized: Bərēʾšīṯ, 'In [the] beginning'.
For much of the 20th century, most scholars agreed that the five books of the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—came from four sources: the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomist and the Priestly source. Known as the documentary hypothesis, each source was held to tell the same basic story, with the sources later joined together by various editors.
Since the 1970s, however, there has been a revolution in this line of
thought, leading scholars to view the Elohist source as no more than a
variation on the Yahwist, and the Priestly source as a body of revisions
and expansions to the Yahwist (or "non-Priestly") material (the
Deuteronomistic source does not appear in Genesis).
Scholars use examples of repeated and duplicate stories to
identify separate sources. In Genesis, these include three different
accounts of a patriarch claiming that his wife was his sister, the two creation stories, and the two versions of Abraham sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert.
This leaves the question of when these works were created.
Scholars in the first half of the 20th century concluded that the
Yahwist source was a product of the monarchic period, specifically at the court of Solomon, 10th century BC, and the Priestly work a product of the middle of the 5th century BC (with claims that the author was Ezra). However, more recent thinking is that the Yahwist source dates to from either just before or during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BC, and that the Priestly final edition was made late in the Exilic period or soon after. The almost complete absence of all the characters and incidents mentioned in primeval history
from the rest of the Hebrew Bible has led a sizeable minority of
scholars to conclude that these chapters were composed much later than
those that follow, possibly in the 3rd century BC. By comparing Dead Sea level indications in chapter 14 of Genesis Amos Frumkin and Yoel Elitzur suggest the composition dating between 1500 and 1200 BC.
As for why the book was created, a theory which has gained
considerable interest, although still controversial, is that of Persian
imperial authorisation. This proposes that the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire,
after their conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, agreed to grant Jerusalem a
large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the
local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire
community. The two powerful groups making up the community—the priestly
families who controlled the Second Temple and who traced their origin
to Moses and the wilderness wanderings, and the major landowning
families who made up the "elders" and who traced their own origins to
Abraham, who had "given" them the land—were in conflict over many
issues, and each had its own "history of origins". However, the Persian
promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful
incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.
Genre
Genesis is
an example of a work in the "antiquities" genre, as the Romans knew it, a
popular genre telling of the appearance of humans and their ancestors
and heroes, with elaborate genealogies and chronologies fleshed out with
stories and anecdotes.
The most notable examples are found in the work of Greek historians of
the 6th century BC: their intention was to connect notable families of
their own day to a distant and heroic past, and in doing so they did not
distinguish between myth, legend, and facts. Professor Jean-Louis Ska of the Pontifical Biblical Institute calls the basic rule of the antiquarian historian the "law of conservation": everything old is valuable, nothing is eliminated.
This antiquity was needed to prove the worth of Israel's traditions to
the nations (the neighbours of the Jews in the early Persian province of
Judea), and to reconcile and unite the various factions within Israel
itself.
Describing the work of the biblical authors, John Van Seters
wrote that lacking many historical traditions and none from the distant
past, "They had to use myths and legends for earlier periods. In order
to make sense out of the variety of different and often conflicting
versions of stories, and to relate the stories to each other, they
fitted them into a genealogical chronology."
There are four major textual witnesses to the book: the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and fragments of Genesis found at Qumran.
The Qumran group provides the oldest manuscripts but covers only a
small proportion of the book; in general, the Masoretic Text is well
preserved and reliable, but there are many individual instances where
the other versions preserve a superior reading.
Structure
Genesis appears to be structured around the recurring phrase elleh toledot,
meaning "these are the generations", with the first use of the phrase
referring to the "generations of heaven and earth" and the remainder
marking individuals—Noah, the "sons of Noah", Shem, etc., down to Jacob. The toledot
formula, occurring eleven times in the book of Genesis, delineating its
sections and shaping its structure, serves as a heading which marks a
transition to a new subject:
Genesis 10:1 (genealogy) Toledot of Shem, Ham, and Japheth
Genesis 11:10 (genealogy) Toledot of Shem
Genesis 11:27 (narrative) Toledot of Terach
Genesis 25:12 (genealogy) Toledot of Ishmael
Genesis 25:19 (narrative) Toledot of Isaac
Genesis 36:1 and 36:9 (genealogy) Toledot of Esau
Genesis 37:2 (narrative) Toledot of Jacob
It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors,
and most modern commentators divide it into two parts based on the
subject matter, a "primeval history" (chapters 1–11) and a "patriarchal
history" (chapters 12–50).
While the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic
themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire
book.
The "primeval history" has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters
6–9, the flood story, with the events before the flood mirrored by the
events after; the "ancestral history" is structured around the three patriarchs Abraham, Jacob and Joseph. (The stories of Isaac do not make up a coherent cycle of stories and function as a bridge between the cycles of Abraham and Jacob.)
The Genesis creation narrative comprises two different stories; the first two chapters roughly correspond to these. In the first, Elohim, the generic Hebrew word for God, creates the heavens and the earth including humankind, in six days, and rests on the seventh. In the second, God, now referred to as "Yahweh Elohim" (rendered as "the LORD God" in English translations), creates two individuals, Adam and Eve, as the first man and woman, and places them in the Garden of Eden.
In the third chapter, God instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They promise not to, but a talking serpent, portrayed as a deceptive creature or trickster,
convinces Eve to eat the fruit against God's wishes, and she convinces
Adam, whereupon God throws them out and curses both of them—Adam was
cursed with getting what he needs only by sweat and work, and Eve to
giving birth in pain. This is interpreted by Christians as the "fall of man" into sin. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel.
Cain works in the garden, and Abel works with meat; they both offer
offerings to God one day, and God does not accept Cain's offering but
does accept Abel's. This causes Cain to resent Abel, and Cain ends up
murdering him. God then curses Cain. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abel's place.
After many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by human sin and Nephilim, and God wants to wipe out humanity for their wickedness. However, Noah is the only good human; so first, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build an ark and put examples of all the animals on it, seven pairs of every clean animal and one pair of every unclean. Then God sends a great flood
to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises
he will never destroy the world with water again, making a rainbow as a symbol of his promise. God sees humankind cooperating to build a great tower city, the Tower of Babel, and divides humanity with many languages and sets them apart with confusion. Then, a generation line from Shem to Abram is described.
Abram, a man descended from Noah, is instructed by God to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan.
There, God makes a promise to Abram, promising that his descendants
shall be as numerous as the stars, but that people will suffer
oppression in a foreign land for four hundred years, after which they
will inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates". Abram's name is changed to 'Abraham' and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah (meaning 'princess'), and God says that all males should be circumcised as a sign of his promise to Abraham. Due to her old age, Sarah tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife (to bear a child). Through Hagar, Abraham fathers Ishmael.
God then plans to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
for the sins of their people. Abraham protests but fails to get God to
agree not to destroy the cities (his reasoning being that everybody
there is evil, except for Abraham's nephew Lot). Angels save Abraham's
nephew Lot (who was living there at the same time) and his family, but his wife
looks back on the destruction, (even though God commanded not to) and
turns into a pillar of salt for going against his word. Lot's daughters,
concerned that they are fugitives who will never find husbands, get Lot
drunk so they can become pregnant by him, and give birth to the
ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites.
Abraham and Sarah go to the Philistine town of Gerar,
pretending to be brother and sister (they are half-siblings). The King
of Gerar takes Sarah for his wife, but God warns him to return her (as
she is really Abraham's wife) and he obeys. God sends Sarah a son and
tells her she should name him Isaac;
through him will be the establishment of the covenant (promise). Sarah
then drives Ishmael and his mother Hagar out into the wilderness
(because Ishmael is not her real son and Hagar is a slave), but God
saves them and promises to make Ishmael a great nation.
The Angel Hinders the Offering of Isaac (Rembrandt, 1635)
Then, God tests Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice Isaac.
As Abraham is about to lay the knife upon his son, "the Angel of the
Lord" restrains him, promising him again innumerable descendants. On the
death of Sarah, Abraham purchases Machpelah (believed to be modern Hebron)
for a family tomb and sends his servant to Mesopotamia to find among
his relations a wife for Isaac; after proving herself worthy, Rebekah
becomes Isaac's betrothed. Keturah, Abraham's other wife, births more children, among whose descendants are the Midianites. Abraham dies at a prosperous old age and his family lays him to rest in Hebron (Machpelah).
Jacob flees Laban by Charles Foster, 1897.
Isaac's wife Rebekah gives birth to the twins Esau (meaning 'velvet'), father of the Edomites, and Jacob
(meaning 'supplanter' or 'follower'). Esau was a couple of seconds
older as he had come out of the womb first, and was going to become the
heir; however, through carelessness, he sold his birthright to Jacob for
a bowl of stew. His mother, Rebekah, ensures Jacob rightly gains his
father's blessing as the firstborn son and inheritor. At 77 years of
age, Jacob leaves his parents and later seeks a wife and meets Rachel at
a well. He goes to her father, his uncle, where he works for a total of 14 years to earn his wives, Rachel and Leah. Jacob's name is changed to 'Israel' after his wrestle with an angel,
and by his wives and their handmaidens he has twelve sons, the
ancestors of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and a
daughter, Dinah.
Joseph,
Jacob's favourite son of the twelve, makes his brothers jealous
(especially because of special gifts Jacob gave him) and because of that
jealousy they sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt.
Joseph endures many trials including being innocently sentenced to jail
but he stays faithful to God. After several years, he prospers there
after the pharaoh
of Egypt asks him to interpret a dream he had about an upcoming famine,
which Joseph does through God. He is then made second in command of
Egypt by the grateful pharaoh, and later on, he is reunited with his
father and brothers, who fail to recognize him and plead for food as the
famine had reached Canaan as well. After much manipulation to see if
they still hate him, Joseph reveals himself, forgives them for their
actions, and lets them and their households into Egypt, where Pharaoh
assigns to them the land of Goshen. Jacob calls his sons to his bedside and reveals their future
before he dies. Joseph lives to old age and tells his brothers before
his death that if God leads them out of the country, then they should
take his bones with them.
Themes
Joseph Recognized by His Brothers (Léon Pierre Urban Bourgeois, 1863)
Promises to the ancestors
In 1978, David Clines published The Theme of the Pentateuch.
Considered influential as one of the first authors to take up the
question of the overarching theme of the Pentateuch, Clines' conclusion
was that the overall theme is "the partial fulfilment—which implies also
the partial nonfulfillment—of the promise to or blessing of the
Patriarchs". (By calling the fulfilment "partial", Clines was drawing
attention to the fact that at the end of Deuteronomy the people of
Israel are still outside Canaan.)
The patriarchs, or ancestors, are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with their wives (Joseph is normally excluded). Since the name YHWH had not been revealed to them, they worshipped El in his various manifestations.
(It is, however, worth noting that in the Jahwist source, the
patriarchs refer to deity by the name YHWH, for example in Genesis 15.)
Through the patriarchs, God announces the election of Israel, that is,
he chooses Israel to be his special people and commits himself to their
future.
God tells the patriarchs that he will be faithful to their descendants
(i.e. to Israel), and Israel is expected to have faith in God and his
promise. ("Faith" in the context of Genesis and the Hebrew Bible means
an agreement to the promissory relationship, not a body of a belief.)
The promise itself has three parts: offspring, blessings, and land.
The fulfilment of the promise to each patriarch depends on having a
male heir, and the story is constantly complicated by the fact that each
prospective mother—Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel—is
barren. The ancestors, however, retain their faith in God and God in
each case gives a son—in Jacob's case, twelve sons, the foundation of
the chosen Israelites.
Each succeeding generation of the three promises attains a more rich
fulfilment, until through Joseph "all the world" attains salvation from
famine, and by bringing the children of Israel down to Egypt he becomes the means through which the promise can be fulfilled.
Scholars generally agree that the theme of divine promise unites the
patriarchal cycles, but many would dispute the efficacy of trying to
examine Genesis' theology by pursuing a single overarching theme,
instead citing as more productive the analysis of the Abraham cycle, the
Jacob cycle, and the Joseph cycle, and the Yahwist and Priestly sources. The problem lies in finding a way to unite the patriarchal theme of the divine promise to the stories of Genesis 1–11 (the primeval history) with their theme of God's forgiveness in the face of man's evil nature. One solution is to see the patriarchal stories as resulting from God's decision not to remain alienated from humankind: God creates the world and humans, humans rebel, and God "elects" (chooses) Abraham.
To this basic plot (which comes from the Yahwist), the Priestly source has added a series of covenants dividing history into stages, each with its own distinctive "sign". The first covenant
is between God and all living creatures, and is marked by the sign of
the rainbow; the second is with the descendants of Abraham (Ishmaelites and others as well as Israelites), and its sign is circumcision; and the last, which does not appear until the Book of Exodus, is with Israel alone, and its sign is Sabbath. A great leader mediates each covenant (Noah, Abraham, Moses), and at each stage God progressively reveals himself by his name (Elohim with Noah, El Shaddai with Abraham, Yahweh with Moses).
Cultural impact
By
totaling the spans of time in the genealogies of Genesis, religious
authorities have calculated what they consider to be the age of the
world since creation. This Anno Mundi system of counting years is the basis of the Hebrew calendar and Byzantine calendar. Counts differ somewhat, but they generally place the age of the earth at about six thousand years.
During the Protestant Reformation,
rivalry between Catholic and Protestant Christians led to a closer
study of the Bible and a competition to take its words more seriously.
Thus, scholars in Europe from the 16th to the 19th century treated the
book of Genesis as factual. As evidence in the fields of paleontology, geology and other sciences was uncovered, scholars tried to fit these discoveries into the Genesis creation account. For example, Johann Jakob Scheuchzer in the 18th century believed that fossils
were the remains of creatures killed during the flood. This literal
understanding of Genesis fell out of favor with scholars during the Victorian crisis of faith as evidence mounted that the earth was far older than six thousand years.
Judaism's weekly Torah portions in the Book of Genesis
It is a custom among religious Jewish communities for a weekly Torah portion, popularly referred to as a parashah, to be read during Jewish prayer services on Saturdays, Mondays and Thursdays. The full name, פָּרָשַׁת הַשָּׁבוּעַ, Parashat ha-Shavua, is popularly abbreviated to parashah (also parshah/pɑːrʃə/ or parsha), and is also known as a Sidra (or Sedra/sɛdrə/).
The parashah is a section of the Torah (Five Books of Moses) used in Jewish liturgy during a particular week. There are 54 weekly parshas, or parashiyot in Hebrew, and the full cycle is read over the course of one Jewish year.
The first 12 of the 54 come from the Book of Genesis, and they are:
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.
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, Section7 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.
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 Africanpirates, 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 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.
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.
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. 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. 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. 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 re-shape the American agenda away from
New Deal policies toward more conservative ideology. With the Cold War ending and the United States becoming the world's undisputed leading power, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama
each served two terms as president. Meanwhile, Congress and the nation
gradually became more politically polarized, especially following the 1994 mid-term elections that saw Republicans control the House for the first time in 40 years, and the rise of routine filibusters in the Senate in recent decades. 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
and Donald Trump, winning in the Electoral College while losing 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, Section1 of the Constitution vests all lawmaking power in Congress's hands, and Article 1, Section 6, Clause2
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.
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, 524U.S.417 (1998), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.
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 he
believes are needed. Additionally, he 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, Section3 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 JusticeJohn 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, 418U.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, 520U.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 States92U.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. Reynolds345U.S.1 (1953), where it was held to be a common lawevidentiary 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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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, Clause3
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.
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. 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.
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.
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, and briefly sought a second
full term—to which he would have otherwise been ineligible for
re-election, as he had been president for more than two years of
Roosevelt's fourth term—before he withdrew from the 1952 election. Since becoming operative in 1951, the amendment has been applicable to six twice-elected presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Vacancies and succession
Under Section1 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.
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.
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 2021 USD
1789
$25,000
$568,625
1873
$50,000
$1,130,972
1909
$75,000
$2,261,944
1949
$100,000
$1,138,881
1969
$200,000
$1,477,858
2001
$400,000
$612,141
Since 2001, the president's annual salary has been $400,000, along
with a: $50,000 expense allowance; $100,000 nontaxable travel account,
and $19,000 entertainment account. The president's salary is set by Congress, and under Article II, Section 1, Clause7
of the Constitution, any increase or reduction in presidential salary
cannot take effect before the next presidential term of office.
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.
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) comprise the property.
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.
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.
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. 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 has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has 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 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 Bush to lead efforts to aid Haiti after an earthquake devastated that country in 2010.
Clinton was 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 was also active politically since his presidential term ended, having worked with his former vice president Joe Biden on his 2020 election campaign. Trump has continued to make appearances in the media and at conventions and rallies since leaving office.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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 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:
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