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The Presidency:
republican
or imperial?

"Energy in the executive is the leading character in the definition of good government."

~ Alexander Hamilton,
The Federalist #70.

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Powers of the U.S. President

Constitutional

• Commander in Chief of armed forces
• Require the Opinion of the heads of executive Departments
• Grant Reprieves and Pardons
• Make Treaties, pending Senate concurrence
• Appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers
• Report on the State of the Union
• Require emergency convening of Congress
• Receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers
• Take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed
• Commission all Officers of the United States

Extraordinary

In addition, presidents since the 1930s have asserted broad new powers beyond those laid out in the Constitution. Franklin Roosevelt decreed a wide variety of New Deal programs, some of which were later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Harry Truman initiated U.S. involvement in the Korean War without congressional approval, and later ordered a Federal government seizure of U.S. steel mills in order to prevent a labor stoppage. Lyndon Johnson sent U.S. forces into combat in Vietnam, beginning a long, costly war with barely any pretense of congressional approval. Richard Nixon declared a nationwide freeze on wages and prices without any constitutional authority, and ordered illegal wiretaps of political opponents. (Hence Arthur Schlesinger's 1973 book The Imperial Presidency: www.amazon.com) Bill Clinton launched a U.S.-led war against Serbia on behalf of Kosovo, entirely on his own. George W. Bush launched wars against Afghanistan and Iraq without a congressional declaration of war, and Barack Obama sent U.S. military aircraft to help the rebel forces win the 2011 Libyan civil war, ignoring the limits imposed by the War Powers Resolution of 1973. Actions taken by President Trump during his term (2017-2021) challenged traditional norms aimed at separating politics from institutional integrity, raising fears among Democrats and others about the fate of democracy itself. (Indeed, Trump never explicitly conceded defeat in his failed re-election bid.) In sum, public acquiescence in continued growth of presidential power beyond its proper constitutional limits over the past century has raised serious doubt about whether this country is still the republic that it claims to be, or perhaps instead has become an empire.

Did you know?

From 1840 through 1960, every single president who was elected in a year ending in zero (1840 W.H. Harrison; 1860 Lincoln; 1880 Garfield; 1900 McKinley; 1920 Harding; 1940 F. Roosevelt; 1960 Kennedy) died in office. Ronald Reagan broke that seeming curse.

Former U.S. Presidents: brief chronology

* : Incumbent lost re-election bid.

Did you know?

In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush received 2,912,790 votes in Florida, while Al Gore received 2,912,253 -- a margin of only 537 votes! Believe it or not!

In general, years are shown on the same line as the president who served for the greater part of that year, except for a few special cases indicated by a period (e.g., 1865), in which case the same year is listed for two successive presidents.
Year boxes with red numbers and red borders denote presidents who died while in office; blue number and border denotes resignation.
# = disputed election.         @ = assassinated.
The names of presidents of special historical significance are indicated by bold face.

NOTE: The "50%" level indicated on the map pertains only to the top two candidates, excluding minor party candidates.

COMPARE MAPS:

Presidential elections since World War II

NOTES: (Winners' names are in bold face.)
* In March 1968 Pres. announced he would not run for reelection, endorsing V.P. Hubert Humphrey to replace him as the Democratic nominee.
** Early in the 1972 campaign, Thomas Eagleton was replaced as Democratic vice presidential candidate by Sargent Shriver.
# In 1960, 14 electors who were pledged to Kennedy and one pledged to Nixon "defected," casting their 15 votes for Harry F. Byrd.
## In 2016, 2 electors who were pledged to Trump and 5 electors who were pledged to Clinton "defected," casting their votes for others. Otherwise, Trump would have won 306 electoral votes and Clinton would have won 232 electoral votes.
*** In 2020, both parties' conventions were mostly held online due to the covid-19 pandemic. Efforts by the Trump campaign to overturn the results when the electoral votes were cast on Dec. 12 and when they were counted by Congress on Jan. 6 (disputing the vote totals in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona) did not succeed.
**** In July 2024, after the Republican convention, Pres. Joe Biden announced he would not run for reelection, endorsing V.P. Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic nominee.

SOURCES: Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections, World Almanac and Book of Facts: (2012 and 2017), wikipedia.org