US Government
6 December 2013
The President The President of the United States is something that everyone in the world is concerned about because of how much power he has. Since the presidency was established the power that the President has increased rapidly and this has changed the way our nation is run. The United States President makes up the executive branch of the government and he has eight major roles that he exercises simultaneously: chief of state, chief, chief executive, chief administrator, chief diplomat, commander and chief, chief legislator, party chief, and chief citizen and all of these roles are very different. These roles make our President the ceremonial head of the United States and a symbol for all of the people of America. The President has executive power; therefore, he makes up Federal Government’s executive branch. Not only does he do that but he is the head of our nation’s armed forces and our international relations. The Constitution outlines the formal qualifications that someone needs to have in order to become the President of the United States. First the President is required to be born in the United States, meaning that someone born in another country may not be President even if they have American citizenship. Second, the President must be at least 35 years of age. The youngest President ever elected was John F. Kennedy who was 43 years old when he won the Presidency. However, Theodore Roosevelt is the youngest President ever because he received the presidency by succession when he was 42 years old. The third and final requirement is that the President must have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. This prevents people who have American citizenship but not lived in America very long from becoming President. As of 1951 Presidents can only hold office for two four-year terms because otherwise someone can hold power too long and possibly try to abuse it. The only President to be hold office for more than two terms is Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was President for three terms and he even tried to run for a fourth term. Not long after this happened, the 22nd Amendment was made to prevent this from happening. Before 1951 there were no term limits for the Presidency but because George Washington did not seek a third term it became an unwritten rule that a President could only hold be in office for two terms. How much the President is paid is determined by Congress but the President’s salary cannot be raised or lowered during a presidential term. Today the President receives a salary of $400,000 per year but the Presidents first salary was set at $25,000 per year. Should the President ever have a disability he has the ability to give his power up and let the Vice President take power. Then once the disability is gone or the President is okay he will be allowed to have to power of the presidency back. This has only happened twice, once when Ronald Reagan transferred the powers of the presidency to George H. W. Bush for eight hours when he went through an operation to have a tumor removed. Then the other time was when George W. Bush gave his power to Dick Cheney for two hours when he was put to sleep for a medical procedure. The Presidents power is addressed in Article II of the Constitution but because Article II is extremely short many people wonder whether the Framers of the Constitution wanted the Presidency to be as powerful as it is today. The