Presidential and Vice Presidential Salaries
Exclusive of Perquisites

Data from Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the Presidency

Year / President / Vice President / Cabinet
1789 / $25,000 / $5,000 /
1873 / $50,000 / $10,000 /
1906 / $50,000 / $12,000 /
1909 / $75,000 / $12,000 /
1946 / $75,000 / $20,000 /
1949 / $100,000
$50,000 non-taxable expense account / $30,000
$10,000 non-taxable expense account /
1951 / $100,000
$50,000 non-taxable expense account / $35,000
$10,000 non-taxable expense account /
1953 / $100,000
$50,000 taxable expense account / $35,000
$10,000 taxable expense account /
1964 / $100,000
$50,000 taxable expense account / $43,000
$10,000 taxable expense account /
1969 / $200,000
$50,000 taxable expense account / $62,500
$10,000 taxable expense account /
1979 / $200,000
$50,000 non-taxable expense account / $62,500
$10,000 taxable expense account /
1994 / $200,000
$50,000 non-taxable expense account / $171,000
$10,000 taxable expense account /
2001 / $400,000 / $175,400 / $161,200
2003 / $400,000 / $198,600 / $171,900

2003 data from CRS Report Effective January 1, 2001, the annual salary of the president of the United States was increased to $400,000 per year, including a $50,000 expense allowance.

Presidential Trivia

Who was the only bachelor to lead the nation?

Presidents Who Were Related to Each Other
  • John Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams.
  • James Madison and Zachary Taylor were second cousins.
  • William Henry Harrison was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison.
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt.
  • George W. Bush is the son of George Bush.
  • More...
Before I Became President...
  • Twenty-six Presidents were lawyers before becoming president.
  • Twelve presidents were generals: Washington, Jackson, W. Harrison, Taylor, Pierce, A. Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, B. Harrison, and Eisenhower. At the end of the American Revolution, the suggestion that General Washington become king circulated in the Army's upper ranks. Washington reacted strongly against the idea, saying, "no occurrence in the course of the War has given me more painful sensations."
  • Nine years after leaving the presidency, Taft was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court. So pleased was he with this career change that he later wrote, "I don't remember that I was ever president."
  • George Washington's salary as president was $25,000. Bush's salary is $400,000.
  • More Presidents' Occupations
Related Links
  • Presidential Factfile
  • Almanac: U.S. Presidents
  • Presidents' Day Quiz
  • Hangman: U.S. Presidents
  • Presidential Quotes
  • Famous Presidential Speeches
  • First Families
  • Presidents' Gallery
  • First Ladies' Gallery

Presidential Trivia

Barack Obamais the 44th president but there actually have only been 42 presidents: Cleveland was elected for two nonconsecutive terms and is counted twice, as our 22nd and 24th president.

Eight Presidents were born British subjects: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, and W. Harrison.

Nine Presidents never attended college: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman. The college that has the most presidents as alumni (six in total) is Harvard: J. Adams, J. Q. Adams, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Kennedy, and G. W. Bush (business school). Yale is a close second, with five presidents as alumni: Taft, Ford (law school), G.H.W. Bush, Clinton (law school), and G. W. Bush.

Presidents who would be considered "Washington outsiders" (i.e., the 18 presidents who never served in Congress) are: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Taylor, Grant, Arthur, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover, F. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and G. W. Bush.

The most commonreligious affiliation among presidents has been Episcopalian, followed by Presbyterian.

The ancestryof 43 presidents is limited to the following seven heritages, or some combination thereof: Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, or German. (Obama—African)

The oldestelected president was Reagan (age 69); the youngest was Kennedy (age 43). Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the youngest man to become president—he was 42 when he succeeded McKinley, who had been assassinated. THE OLDEST LIVING former president was Gerald Ford, who was born on July 14, 1913, and died on Dec.27, 2006, at age 93. The second oldest was Ronald Reagan, who also lived to be 93 years.

The tallest president was Lincoln at 6'4"; at 5'4", Madison was the shortest.

Fourteen Presidents served as vice presidents: J. Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon, L. Johnson, Ford, and George H.W. Bush.

Vice Presidents were originally the presidential candidates receiving the second-largest number of electoral votes. The Twelfth Amendment, passed in 1804, changed the system so that the electoral college voted separately for president and vice president. The presidential candidate, however, gradually gained power over the nominating convention to choose his own running mate.

For two years the nation was run by a president and a vice president who were not elected by the people. After Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973, President Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as vice president. Nixon resigned the following year, which left Ford as president, and Ford's appointed vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, as second in line.

Four Presidents won the popular vote but lost the presidency: Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but lost the election to John Quincy Adams (1824); Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote but lost the election to Rutherford B. Hayes (1876); Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the election to Benjamin Harrison (1888); Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to George W. Bush (2000).

The term "First Lady" was first used in 1877 in reference to Lucy Ware Webb Hayes. Most First Ladies, including Jackie Kennedy, are said to have hated the label.

James Buchanan was the only president never to marry. Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives—two of whom, Tyler and Wilson, remarried while in the White House. Reagan was the only divorced president. Six presidents had no children. Tyler—father of fifteen—had the most.

Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated in office.

Assassination attempts were made on the lives of Jackson, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Ford, and Reagan.

Eight Presidentsdied in office: W. Harrison (after having served only one month), Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, F. Roosevelt, and Kennedy.

Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe all died on the 4th of July; Coolidge was born on that day.

Kennedy and Taft are the only presidents buried in ArlingtonNationalCemetery.

Lincoln, Jefferson, F. Roosevelt, Washington, Kennedy, and Eisenhower are portrayed on U.S. coins.

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson, Grant, McKinley, Cleveland, Madison, and Wilson are portrayed on U.S. paper currency.

Presidents' Occupations

This table provides information about the occupations held by U.S. Presidents before and after their time in office.

President / Major Jobs Before the Presidency / Jobs After the Presidency
George Washington / surveyor, planter, general of the Army of the United Colonies / planter, lieutenant-general of all the U.S. armies
John Adams / schoolteacher, lawyer, diplomat, vice president under Washington / writer
Thomas Jefferson / writer, inventor, lawyer, architect, governor of Virginia, secretary of state under Washington, vice president under Adams / writer, gentleman farmer, rector at the University of Virginia
James Madison / lawyer, political theorist, U.S. congressman, secretary of state under Jefferson / rector at the University of Virginia
James Monroe / soldier, lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of Virginia / writer, regent at the University of Virginia
John Quincy Adams / lawyer, diplomat, professor, U.S. senator, secretary of state under Monroe / U.S. representative from Massachusetts
Andrew Jackson / soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, governor of Florida / gentleman farmer
Martin Van Buren / lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of New York, vice president under Jackson / activist for Free Soil Party
William Henry Harrison / soldier, diplomat, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Ohio / died in office
John Tyler / lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Harrison / lawyer, chancellor of the College of William and Mary, member of the Confederate House of Representatives
James Knox Polk / lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee / died 103 days after leaving office
Zachary Taylor / soldier / died in office
Millard Fillmore / lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Taylor / rogue political activist, chancellor of the University of Buffalo
Franklin Pierce / lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from New Hampshire / gentleman farmer
James Buchanan / lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state / writer
Abraham Lincoln / postmaster, lawyer, U.S. congressman from Illinois / died in office
Andrew Johnson / tailor, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee, U.S. senator from Tennessee, vice president under Lincoln / U.S. senator from Tennessee
Ulysses Simpson Grant / U.S. Army general / political activist, writer
Rutherford Birchard Hayes / lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio / education activist, president of the National Prison Reform Association
James Abram Garfield / schoolteacher, soldier, U.S. representative from Ohio / died in office
Chester Alan Arthur / schoolteacher, lawyer, tariff collector, vice president under Garfield / lawyer
Grover Cleveland / sheriff, lawyer, mayor, governor of New York / reelected president
Benjamin Harrison / lawyer, soldier, journalist, U.S. senator from Indiana / lawyer, lecturer
William McKinley / soldier, lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio / died in office
Theodore Roosevelt / rancher, soldier, governor of New York, vice president under McKinley / hunter, writer
William Howard Taft / lawyer, judge, dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School, U.S. secretary of war / professor, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Woodrow Wilson / lawyer, professor, president of PrincetonUniversity, governor of New Jersey / retired in poor health
Warren Gamaliel Harding / newspaper editor, U.S. senator from Ohio / died in office
Calvin Coolidge / lawyer, governor of Massachusetts, vice president under Harding / writer, president of the American Antiquarian Society
Herbert Clark Hoover / engineer, U.S. secretary of commerce / chair of the Hoover Commission on administrative reform
FranklinDelanoRoosevelt / lawyer, governor of New York / died in office
Harry S. Truman / farmer, soldier, haberdasher, judge, U.S. senator, vice president under Roosevelt / writer
Dwight David Eisenhower / supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, U.S. Army chief of staff / writer
John Fitzgerald Kennedy / journalist, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Massachusetts / died in office
Lyndon Baines Johnson / schoolteacher, soldier, congressman, U.S. senator from Texas, vice president under Kennedy / rancher, writer
Richard Milhous Nixon / lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Eisenhower / writer
Gerald Rudolph Ford / lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Nixon / writer
James Earl Carter, Jr. / peanut farmer, governor of Georgia / writer, humanitarian, Nobel-prize winning statesman
Ronald Wilson Reagan / movie actor, corporate spokesman, governor of California / writer
George Herbert Walker Bush / oil executive, U.S. congressman, U.S. ambassador to the UN, Director of CIA, vice president under Reagan / private citizen; teamed with President Clinton to form tsunami and Hurricane Katrina aid funds
William Jefferson Clinton / lawyer, governor of Arkansas / writer, independent ambassador; teamed with President G.H.W. Bush to form tsunami and Hurricane Katrina aid funds
George Walker Bush / oil executive, sport team owner, governor of Texas / —
Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. / community organizer, civil rights lawyer, constitutional law professor, Illinois state senator, U.S. senator / —
Presidency Assignment

Instructions: Display your understanding of the Executive Branch and Politics using an outline or graphic organizers.

1. Who Can Become President?

2. The Process of Becoming President

3. The Many Roles of the President

4. The President as Party Chief and Superpolitician

5. Special Uses of Presidential Power

6. Abuses of Executive Power and Impeachment

7. The Executive Organization

8. The Vice Presidency

9. Key Terms

Presidency Assignment

Instructions: Display your understanding of the Executive Branch and Politics using an outline or graphic organizers.

1. Who Can Become President?

2. The Process of Becoming President

3. The Many Roles of the President

4. The President as Party Chief and Superpolitician

5. Special Uses of Presidential Power

6. Abuses of Executive Power and Impeachment

7. The Executive Organization

8. The Vice Presidency

9. Key Terms

Modern Presidency

PROFILE every president from FDR to Obama

-Background (education, family, occupations

-Term(s) of office

-Key Cabinet Positions

-Relationship with Congress (History, Stalemate, Contentious,)

-Relationship with Media (Controversies, Positive Aspects, etc.)

-Spirit of the Times (Major political events/situations)

-Political Party

-Leadership Style

-Controversial appointees

-Domestic Policy

-Foreign Policy

-History’s View & Legacy

Modern Presidency

PROFILE every president from FDR to Obama

-Background (education, family, occupations

-Term(s) of office

-Key Cabinet Positions

-Relationship with Congress (History, Stalemate, Contentious,)

-Relationship with Media (Controversies, Positive Aspects, etc.)

-Spirit of the Times (Major political events/situations)

-Political Party

-Leadership Style

-Controversial appointees

-Domestic Policy

-Foreign Policy

-History’s View & Legacy

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After students have read and studied this chapter, they should be able to:

  • Identify and explain the roles of the president (including head of state, chief executive, commander in chief, chief diplomat, chief legislator, and chief of party).
  • Identify and explain the types of presidential powers:
  • Constitutional powers.
  • Statutory powers.
  • Express powers.
  • Inherent powers.
  • Explain impeachment, differentiate it from conviction, and give historical examples of the process.
  • Describe the organization of the executive branch:
  • The cabinet.
  • The Executive Office of the President.
  • The White House Office.
  • The Office of Management and Budget.
  • The National Security Council.
  • Discuss the evolving role for the vice president as an advisor and successor to the president.
  • Describe the Twenty-fifth Amendment and discuss potential problems associated with it.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

How has the presidency evolved from the time of George Washington to the time of George W. Bush?

When the president travels to other countries, he is greeted in a dual capacity: leader of government and chief of state. How does this affect the president?

Did the founding fathers think of the president as chief legislator? Besides the State of the Union message and the veto, what legislative power was granted to the president?

Who develops policy within the executive branch?

What has happened to the power of the presidency in this century? How did the New Deal impact the presidency? How has the role of government changed with the role of the president? If the president has gained power, which branch has lost power? How has Congress tried to protect the balance of power?

Consider the situations in which impeachment has been employed. Ask your students whether they would have voted to impeach Andrew Johnson for choosing to violate an act of Congress that was clearly unconstitutional. Once you’ve made it clear that Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, ask your students whether they would have impeached Clinton for the affair with Monica Lewinsky. Use this as a jumping off point for what they view as an impeachable offense. Finally, consider whether they believe that George W. Bush committed impeachable offenses in deceiving the American people on the necessity of war with Iraq, in so ineffectively planning and executing this war, and finally, in choosing to ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by authorizing the National Security Agency to engage in warrantless surveillance of American citizens who are suspected of communicating with terrorist suspects.

Consider the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. Could this amendment be abused? Under what circumstances?

BEYOND THE BOOK

Many supporters of Al Gore were outraged by result of the 2000 elections. Most of the protest, however, came as a result of disputed votes in Florida, which determined the outcome of the election in the Electoral College. In spite of the fact that Gore won the popular vote, there was relative acceptance of the role the Electoral College plays in electing the president. Changing or abolishing the Electoral College would be very difficult. An amendment to the Constitution would have to be proposed by Congress and would have to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. This would require overwhelming support in Congress and from state legislatures, many of which represent smaller states that might lose power as a result of such a move.

If no vice presidential candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Senate elects the vice president. The last time this occurred was 1836 when Richard M. Johnson, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, did not receive a majority of the electoral votes. The electors from Virginia chose not to support the Democratic vice presidential candidate because he had allegedly lived with an African-American woman and fathered two daughters with her. The Senate elected Johnson as the vice president regardless of the scandal.

The impoundment of funds is the refusal to spend money appropriated by Congress for a specific item. Many presidents have taken this action and there was little disapproval from Congress prior to President Nixon’s impoundment in 1973. Congressional response to this impoundment was enactment of The Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974, which required the president to spend the money appropriated by Congress. In 1975 (after President Nixon had resigned from office) the Supreme Court held that the president must spend money appropriated by Congress, unless Congress approved of the impoundment.

In addition to formal advisors, the president sometimes relies on family members. President Kennedy selected his brother Robert Kennedy as the attorney general and he relied heavily on his advice. During the Johnson administration, however, Congress enacted legislation that prohibits the president from appointing family members to formal executive positions. This has not stopped presidents from seeking the advice of family members. Many presidents, including Carter, Reagan, and Clinton, admitted that they often sought the advice of their spouse when making important decisions. President Clinton formed a task force headed by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to address the issue of health care. Is such reliance problematic? What role would Bill Clinton play in a Hillary Clinton presidency?