• 2 days ago
Presidential historian and head of the George Washington Presidential Library Lindsay Chervinsky joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about the American Presidency. How did the United States end up with only two dominant political parties? Can Donald Trump run for President again? What are the actual duties of a Vice President? Why is election season so long in America? And how many presidents have ever been arrested? Answers to these questions and plenty more await on President Support.

Director: Justin Wolfson
Director of Photography: Eric Bugash
Editor: Alex Mechanik
Expert: Lindsay Chervinsky
Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas
Production Manager: Peter Brunette
Casting Producer: Nicholas Sawyer
Camera Operator: Rob Klein
Sound Mixer: Todd Burger
Production Assistant: Freyja Golbach; Kiran Kestenbaum
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Special Thanks: George Washington's Mount Vernon
Transcript
00:00I'm Lindsey Chervinsky, presidential historian and head of the George Washington Presidential Library.
00:05I'm here today to answer your questions from the internet.
00:07This is President Support.
00:09Town and That asks, can Trump run again in 2028?
00:17No.
00:18Trump is constitutionally barred for running for a third term.
00:21The 22nd Amendment, which was passed after FDR ran for four terms, says that presidents
00:27can only run for two full terms.
00:29Prior to FDR, presidents generally followed George Washington's precedent of only serving
00:34for two terms, but that was voluntary and not required by law.
00:37Grizzly Redneck asks, what's going on with Joe Biden pardoning his own son?
00:42Well, in Article 2 of the Constitution, the president is given almost unilateral authority
00:47to issue pardons on federal offenses except for those relating to impeachment.
00:52So while lots of presidents have issued pardons we don't necessarily like or maybe feel
00:58a little bit gross, a president's pardon power is almost unilateral.
01:02George Washington was the first president to issue a pardon.
01:05One of his first was to a rum smuggler in April of 1794.
01:10Sludge Gaze asks, was the political divide always this bad?
01:14There certainly have been times where we've had very bad partisan tensions and a big divide
01:18between the two different political parties.
01:20The 1790s, the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1960s were all times when political rhetoric and
01:28how people talk to one another were really intense and often quite nasty.
01:32John Adams often referred to one of his political rivals, Alexander Hamilton, as a puppy, which
01:37was the ultimate insult to masculinity in the 1790s.
01:40And John Adams' critics said he had a hermaphroditic character because his values constantly shifted.
01:47There have been times when things have been better, when political campaigns weren't
01:51quite so awful, but this moment that we're in now is probably as bad as some of the other
01:55ones we've lived through.
01:57Hi Cat Whisperer asks, how did we end up with two stupid, unpopular political parties that
02:02are pretty much our only alternative?
02:04Excellent question.
02:06We have what's called a two-party system.
02:08There have been other parties over the course of American history, generally as one of the
02:13major parties breaks down and there are various different factions.
02:16So for example, in the 1840s and 1850s, there was a Know-Nothing Party.
02:22There was the Freedom Party.
02:24Then eventually the Republican Party merged a lot of those different factions into one
02:29new party.
02:31Because of the way our primary system works and the way our Congress works, it's really
02:35hard for a third party to gain any traction.
02:38But that's not necessarily the case in other types of systems.
02:41For example, if you have a parliament, like in Great Britain, there are lots of parties
02:46that have to build coalitions in order to have governing power.
02:49Alec Emily asks, why do we even have a State of the Union address anymore?
02:53It's a waste of everyone's time.
02:55The State of the Union is actually required in the Constitution.
02:59Article 2 says that the president shall, from time to time, give updates to Congress on
03:04the State of the Union.
03:05George Washington called these his Addresses to Congress, and he noted that they were indeed
03:11a required act.
03:12What's interesting about the States of the Union is from Thomas Jefferson to Woodrow
03:17Wilson, they were in writing, and the president would deliver a written address.
03:21Woodrow Wilson went back to delivering this speech in person, and they have been in person
03:27at Congress ever since.
03:28And here at George Washington's Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, we have what's called
03:33an Acts of Congress.
03:35In January of 1790, as George Washington prepared to deliver his first Address to Congress,
03:41or State of the Union, we think that he made these notations in his copy of the Constitution,
03:46where you can see that he has written a notation that says, required, next to the responsibility
03:52to give Congress an update.
03:54And indeed he did.
03:55Every year of his presidency, he went to Congress and delivered a spoken address, telling them
04:01what had happened while they were on recess, and giving some suggestions for what they
04:05might consider in the upcoming term.
04:07Kai Marsh asks,
04:08Did you know Teddy Roosevelt was shot before speech and proceeded to give the entire 90-minute
04:13speech with a bullet in his chest?
04:15Yes, I did know that.
04:16A man named John Schrenk thought that he was having visions that told him to try and defeat
04:22Theodore Roosevelt from winning the presidential election in 1912.
04:25Now what's amazing about why Theodore Roosevelt survived, was he had the speech folded up
04:30in his pocket, and because the speech was so long, the paper was so thick that it actually
04:35slowed down the bullet and saved his life.
04:38After he was shot, Theodore Roosevelt said,
04:40You can't bring down Bull Moose, which is where the name Bull Moose Party comes from.
04:44Ria Soccercrazy asks,
04:45So apparently Teddy Bears were named after former U.S. Prez Theodore Roosevelt.
04:50But why?
04:51Why?
04:52Theodore Roosevelt went on a bear hunt after his presidency, but he wasn't successful
04:55and he couldn't get any and it made him really mad, so the people he was with actually
04:59captured one and tied it up to a willow tree so that he would have the opportunity to shoot
05:04a bear.
05:05But he felt like that wasn't very sporting and wasn't really fair to the bear, so he
05:09refused to kill it.
05:10A political cartoonist depicted this scene, and a candy maker who had a toy and candy
05:15store saw this cartoon and thought it would make an excellent children's toy.
05:19The toy maker received permission to use Teddy's name for the bear, and the Teddy Bear was
05:24born and has been known as such ever since.
05:27Bill Shine Eight asks,
05:29Has the peaceful transition of power ever been in more doubt?
05:32Well, we have had a number of very dramatic transitions.
05:35So for example, when President Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, the South seceded before
05:41he became president, so that's about as bad as it gets.
05:45Then in 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected, it was in the midst of the Great
05:50Depression and the economic conditions were horrible.
05:53But Herbert Hoover really rejected the New Deal programs that Franklin D. Roosevelt had
05:57suggested during the campaign, and they spent several months bickering over what to do with
06:02the election before FDR was finally inaugurated in March of 1933.
06:06The difference with January 6th was that it was a contested transition.
06:10We have never had one candidate to reject the outcome of an election, and we've never
06:14had people try to overthrow the results of an election.
06:18The South didn't like the result in 1860, and so they left the nation.
06:22That's a very different thing.
06:23Yap Pei asks,
06:24In the United States, does the president have access to all levels of classified information?
06:29Yes, the president has access to all classified information and all of the top secrets in
06:33the United States.
06:34Hockey Madman asks,
06:36What does the president do all day anyway?
06:38So the president does a lot of different things.
06:41The president consumes intelligence.
06:43The president talks with foreign leaders, makes really difficult decisions because no
06:47easy choices come to the Oval Office.
06:50The president meets with business leaders and labor leaders and members of Congress
06:54and state governments.
06:56The president hosts really important social receptions.
06:59Those can be for visiting dignitaries like state dinners.
07:03They can be from championship teams that we see sometimes at the White House, or they
07:08can be students or kids who they're trying to encourage to pursue their studies.
07:12What you can see here is an invitation from President George Washington to come to an
07:18event at the president's house in Philadelphia.
07:21This social component of the presidency was there from the very beginning, and George
07:25Washington hosted events every single week during his presidency.
07:29David Kwong asks,
07:30What does the S in Harry S. Truman stand for?
07:33Nothing.
07:34He added it in later because he thought that he needed a middle initial.
07:37Rorden 508 asks,
07:38Wow, the Supreme Court in America shows the world USA does not do democracy.
07:43Apparently, any incoming president can stack its highest court like it's a perk of office.
07:48Well, the Supreme Court size is not actually in the Constitution.
07:52It's totally up to Congress how many seats there are going to be on the Supreme Court
07:55at any given moment, and indeed that number has changed.
07:59The original Supreme Court was six justices, and George Washington appointed all six, and
08:04then the replacements as they left.
08:06The Supreme Court has evolved over time, sometimes for political reasons.
08:10For example, the Federal Judiciary Act of 1801 reduced the size of the Supreme Court,
08:16making it harder for Jefferson to appoint a replacement because he would be from a different
08:20party.
08:22Chris Balrog asks,
08:23Why are American elections so long?
08:25Why not just have them last two to four weeks?
08:28I agree.
08:29That would be great.
08:30And a lot of other elections and other nations are much shorter.
08:33Ours have actually expanded over time, especially in the last couple of decades as they've become
08:38more expensive, as they've become competitive.
08:41But there isn't really anything that says how short or how long they can be.
08:45The problem is if we try and limit that by law, that could be a restriction of freedom
08:50of speech.
08:51We have a First Amendment, which makes it very difficult to limit political speech,
08:55especially.
08:56Savannah Leigh asks,
08:57Damn, did anyone know that President Roosevelt had polio and hid it because of how the community
09:02saw disabled people?
09:03Yes, indeed.
09:04FDR did have polio, and he spent most of his presidency in a wheelchair.
09:09He was able, with the use of braces and support from his sons and his aides, to prop himself
09:16up for speeches and press conferences, but by and large, he was unable to walk.
09:21He hid it because at the time, there was a sense that if you were physically disabled,
09:25that meant you were somehow mentally impaired as well.
09:28And he understood that it would make it much harder for him to become president and much
09:32harder for him to meet with other foreign leaders and exercise the type of power that
09:37a president is required to use.
09:39The secret largely remained such because the press were willing to cooperate.
09:43It was pretty clear to people who were around him that he couldn't move around, but there
09:47was sort of a gentleman's agreement with the press at the time that this was private information
09:51and it was not their story to share.
09:53FDR never really talked about this, and this was only something that came out much later
09:58as people began to share photos and his family began to discuss his battle with polio.
10:03Employee Aromatic 6118 asks,
10:06What do you think of George Washington's take on political parties?
10:09George Washington warned against political parties in his farewell address, which he
10:13published in September of 1796 when he announced his retirement.
10:17But his ideas about political parties are often misunderstood.
10:20He wasn't saying that people shouldn't have political ideas or that they shouldn't
10:24form groups to try and get things done.
10:26What he was saying is that when we form political parties, we often identify as a Democrat or
10:30a Republican first and as American second.
10:34And that was really pernicious to the long-term health of the nation.
10:37Instead, he wanted people to remember that they had more in common than what separated
10:42them.
10:43And political parties tended to exacerbate those differences.
10:46TalkSexWithSue asks,
10:47Did George Washington deal with any infectious diseases like we see today during his presidency?
10:52Yes, he did.
10:53During the Revolutionary War, George Washington had the Continental Army inoculated against
10:58smallpox.
10:59And then during his presidency, there were several outbreaks of yellow fever in Philadelphia
11:03and New York and other coastal cities.
11:06At the time, there was really a sense that a disease outbreak like this one was not a
11:10responsibility of the federal government.
11:12It was a local or state issue.
11:14So a lot of times, the governors would issue quarantines to try and limit the spread of
11:18the disease.
11:19But Washington and a lot of the other federal officials would leave the city to avoid contamination
11:24and did not have any role to play in suppressing it.
11:27NeffyGuyMom asks,
11:28I wonder how it would be if it was required that the vice president be from the opposite
11:32political party of the president?
11:34Well, we've actually had this happen once before.
11:36Thomas Jefferson was the second vice president.
11:39He was the vice president for President John Adams.
11:42They were from the opposite political party, and it was a disaster.
11:46Jefferson actually came remarkably close to committing treason when he met with the French
11:51minister and encouraged France to continue its attacks on American shipping and encouraged
11:58France to avoid any sort of diplomacy with John Adams because he felt that he would win
12:03the next election and he would offer them a better deal.
12:06JPMoonV1 asks,
12:09Has any U.S. president ever been fluent in a second language?
12:12Yes, they have.
12:13Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both spoke French.
12:16They learned several other languages, especially reading and writing.
12:19Perhaps the most fluent was John Quincy Adams, who by the age of 12 spoke almost five languages
12:26and served as his father's secretary when John Adams went to Europe as a diplomat.
12:31John Quincy Adams continued to teach himself new languages throughout the course of his life.
12:35Some of the more recent presidents have less facility with language, though there are some
12:39who have tried to learn some phrases to be able to meet with foreign leaders.
12:43And for example, George W. Bush did speak Spanish.
12:46Bossman13156 asks,
12:49What was the greatest or most impactful speech in the history of the United States?
12:53Well, I think that has to be probably FDR's Four Freedoms speech, in which he argued that
12:58in order for the United States to survive as a democracy and take care of the American people,
13:02it had to provide for freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from
13:07want, which basically means freedom from hunger or poverty, and freedom from fear, because fear
13:12caused people to pursue things like authoritarian governments. And this speech was really important
13:17because it was done in the context of the looming World War II. It was inspiring to people who had
13:22to understand why they had to fight for democracy at a time when it didn't always seem like it was
13:27working. GunnySgtUSMC2 asks,
13:30Who do you think was the most influential First Lady?
13:33I think that's probably Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt served as FDR's eyes and ears
13:38because he couldn't necessarily travel due to having to spend most of his time in a wheelchair.
13:42So she would travel around the country, she would meet with average Americans and report
13:47back to him what she was seeing. She also wrote a newspaper column and was the first First Lady
13:52to have press conferences, and she only invited female reporters, which allowed women to actually
13:57carve out a space in the journalism profession for the first time. BrightClaw431 asks,
14:03Did any of the first presidents have any realistic chance of nipping slavery in the
14:07butt if they chose to do so? So this is a really interesting question. Twelve of the early American
14:12presidents owned enslaved individuals, but they didn't necessarily all feel the same way. President
14:17George Washington emancipated the individuals that he owned when he died, and some of the
14:22other presidents like John Quincy Adams, while he didn't necessarily speak out while he was
14:27president, afterwards he became a member of Congress, and he regularly spoke out against
14:32slavery and the power of slavery in the South. Planesviewer asks,
14:36How many presidents have died while in office?
14:38Eight presidents died in office, four were assassinated, and four died of natural causes.
14:42Which is actually pretty surprising because we've only had 45 men serve,
14:46which means just under 18 percent have died while they were president.
14:50Keurig asks,
14:51What the hell does the vice president do?
14:53The vice president has two responsibilities. One, they are to cast a tie-breaking vote
14:59if the Senate is divided on a piece of legislation. Second is to have a pulse,
15:04to be a living replacement to take over the office of the presidency if he dies in office.
15:09For the modern vice president, that is still their primary constitutional responsibility,
15:14but depending on their relationship with the president, sometimes they are also tasked with
15:18other responsibilities. For example, Joe Biden was tasked with overseeing the recovery after
15:23the 2008 economic collapse. And more recently, Vice President Kamala Harris was given the
15:28responsibility of the relationship with the nations that primarily lead to immigration
15:33to the United States from the southern border. Everything else is really up to the president,
15:37and most vice presidents have been totally irrelevant in history.
15:41Stir Fried Weiss asks,
15:43What did Ulysses S. Grant do to deserve being placed on a $50 bill?
15:47Well, Ulysses S. Grant did two really important things. First, he was the victorious general
15:53in the Civil War when the Union Army defeated the Confederate Army. So winning the Civil War
15:57is a pretty big deal. Second, as president, I think he's really underappreciated. He worked
16:02really hard to try and bring the Union back together after the Civil War. He worked hard
16:07to defend the civil rights and suffrage of recently emancipated African Americans,
16:12and he defended their rights and their liberties against violence from the Ku Klux Klan. So I think
16:17he generally deserves a lot more credit than he gets. Sign Fine Belly asks,
16:21Does Donald Trump have unlimited authority to impose tariffs?
16:24Well, first of all, a tariff is basically a tax that the United States imposes on an
16:29item that is coming in from a foreign nation. Now, most people think that the foreign nation
16:33pays the tax and that's the end of it. But what happens is the foreign nation actually
16:37increases the prices. And so that item that is coming in is then more expensive for Americans
16:43here in the United States. The president does have broad power to put tariffs on items or
16:49on things coming in from foreign nations. However, Congress can check that power if
16:53it then rejects a tariff through legislation. But this is a really interesting part of the
16:58president's responsibilities. While the president does have a lot of power over tariffs, their
17:02control over the economy is much more limited than people typically think. For example,
17:07Congress is the one that passes the budget. Congress is the one that raises funds. So if
17:11you're concerned about the deficit, that is a Congress question. Inflation is even more
17:15complicated. Inflation is affected by things like supply chains, conditions around the world,
17:21access to goods, how much people want them. And while the president can take steps to try
17:26and ameliorate that inflation, they don't have power to reduce it. Additionally, things like
17:30interest rates are controlled by the Federal Reserve. And the Federal Reserve is supposed to
17:34be independent from politics. So while the president can make a request, it's really up to
17:39them to change any sort of rate or make any sort of cut. Dan Dinohill asks, when President Trump
17:44takes office in January, he will be the second president to own two presidential numbers,
17:4945 and 47. Who was the first president to do so? 22 and 24. No checking or cheating. That would be
17:56Grover Cleveland. In 1884, Grover Cleveland won his first election. He was then defeated four
18:02years later. In 1892, he came back and he defeated Benjamin Harrison and won his second term. A lot
18:08of the same concerns that voters had in 1888 and 1892, things like immigration, tariffs, and the
18:14economy are issues that we're seeing today. Good to be human asks, what is the deal with George
18:19Washington and the cherry tree? George Washington did have cherry trees on his estate at Mount
18:25Vernon. And in fact, recently we uncovered a discovery of preserved bottles that had cherries
18:30in them. The story with George Washington and the cherry tree is that when he was a young boy,
18:35he cut down a cherry tree. And then when his father asked him about it, he said, I cannot tell
18:40a lie and admitted to doing so. But there is no truth or evidence that suggests that he cut down
18:45a cherry tree when he was a child. This is a myth that was made up by a man named Parson Weems or
18:51Mason Lock Weems. And he wrote a book about Washington shortly after Washington's death
18:56that was frankly filled with a whole lot of garbage, but it suited him because he was trying
18:59to tell a story about Washington's character and the national mythology. And it sold really,
19:05really well. Alexa Lauren XO asks, we're talking about the great depression and Anthony Moscato
19:10goes, where did all the presidents live before the white house was built? LOL. George Washington
19:15lived in several different houses. He lived in two different residences in New York city,
19:19which is where the seat of the federal government was for about a year. When he was first president,
19:24the seat of government then moved to Philadelphia and he rented a house, which became known as the
19:29president's house. And he lived there until he retired in 1797. John Adams, the second president
19:34of the United States lived there until November, 1800. Then he moved to Washington DC with the rest
19:40of the federal government and became the first president to live in the white house. Every
19:43president since has done so with the exception of James Madison. Once the white house burned down
19:49in the war of 1812, and he moved just down the street to the Octagon house until it was completed.
19:55And Harry Truman also moved across the street into the Blair house when there was a massive
20:00renovation of the white house during his term. He what what asks, how much blame could we actually
20:05give to Herbert Hoover for the great depression? It definitely wasn't Herbert Hoover's fault that
20:09the economy collapsed. There were a lot of structural weaknesses and impediments in the way
20:14of a strong economy. There was a big bubble that had collapsed once it was clear that the speculation
20:19was not sustainable. Where Hoover did receive a lot of blame was his lackluster response. He
20:24believed that the economy would write itself and capitalism could be trusted to take over. And he
20:29didn't do much to try and take care of the American people when they were really suffering.
20:33So I think he could definitely be blamed for not doing enough to try and fix the great depression.
20:37History in Brief asks, so was Edith Wilson the actual president for a year while Woodrow was
20:42recovering from a stroke? Hashtag Edith Wilson, first woman president. Well, she certainly didn't
20:47have the official title or the official office. But yeah, I think Edith Wilson was primarily
20:52acting as president for most of the time that Wilson was incapacitated. She determined who
20:57came in to see him, who got to talk to him. She would report back his decisions at a time when
21:03we know that he wasn't really able to speak and we're not really sure he understood what was
21:07happening. So she had enormous authority that was not elected or was given to her by the constitution.
21:14What's most important about this is that most people didn't really know what was happening.
21:18The cabinet had a sense that Wilson was far more ill than people realized, but most people were
21:24not permitted to actually see the president. And so most Americans did not know who was actually
21:29in charge. My tie tie tie asks, Alexa, what presidents have been impeached? Well, there
21:34have been four impeachments in US history. The first Andrew Johnson was impeached for trying
21:39to remove cabinet secretaries, which violated the Tenure of Office Act. Bill Clinton was impeached
21:45for lying under oath. And Donald Trump was impeached twice, first for withholding funds
21:49from Ukraine for political purposes, and then for his role in the January 6th insurrection.
21:54No president has been removed from office. Southbayboy8 asks, there haven't been two
21:59presidents in a row of the same party since Reagan and H.W. Bush. Why do you think this is?
22:05Well, I think the American people get frustrated with a party. They have relatively little patience
22:09and frankly, sometimes short attention spans. And so they want to elect something new. That
22:14hasn't always been the case. Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, won four elections in a row. And then
22:19Harry Truman won an election in his own right, and he was from the same party. Chopstickfury01
22:25asks, which president would you have the hardest time beating in a drinking contest? That would
22:29have to be James Buchanan. James Buchanan was known for being able to put down quite a number
22:34of bottles of liquor and not even show it. So he would definitely drink me under the table.
22:38Crates of Nutella asks, just how much security do past presidents get and how extensive is it?
22:43Past presidents get secret service protection, as do their spouses. And this was required by
22:49law passed in 1965 after Kennedy's assassination, which recognized that both presidents and former
22:55presidents often receive threats and need additional protection. The early presidents
22:59had no protection. There were no gates outside the president's house and there was no secret
23:04service. Secret service didn't start protecting the president until 1901. So while some presidents
23:09like Abraham Lincoln occasionally had a military guard, it wasn't guaranteed by Congress. Former
23:14presidents didn't start getting protection until 1965 when Congress passed legislation ensuring
23:19that presidents and first ladies receive protection for the rest of their lives. RomanUVA asks,
23:25do presidents age faster in office? Absolutely. Have you seen the pictures? Presidents go gray
23:31so fast while in office because the demands of the job are so intense. There are no easy decisions
23:37or choices that come to their desk. The working hours are often quite intense and you can really
23:42see the impact of stress on their face. A Reddit user asks, how has the office of the President
23:47of the United States changed over time? Well, in some ways, the office of the presidency really hasn't
23:51changed at all. George Washington established a presidency that was the primary actor when it came
23:56to foreign policy and domestic crises and really carved out enormous powers and jurisdiction for
24:02himself and his successors. In other ways, the executive branch has really expanded. We have far
24:07more executive departments, their responsibilities are much greater, and the number of employees in
24:13them is so far beyond what could have been imagined in the 1790s. So the scope of the federal
24:19government is much bigger, even if the idea of the president is the same. Radio Girl Karen asks,
24:24yep, Abe Lincoln was the tallest U.S. president, but who was the shortest? No political comments
24:29necessary. Testing your presidential sparts. Well, that would probably be James Madison. James
24:34Madison was either 5'2 or 5'3, depending on reports, and he was pretty frail as well. What's
24:39interesting is his wife, Dolly Madison, was probably 5'8 or 5'9, and she would wear these
24:45giant turbans to really accentuate her height. Barry G. Sexy asks, I wonder how many presidents
24:50killed another human being, and do we suppose any did so outside of the army? Andrew Jackson
24:56probably killed someone in duel, yeah? You are right. In May of 1806, Andrew Jackson killed
25:02Charles Dickinson over a dispute over a horse that Jackson owned. Jackson was also wounded
25:07in the chest, but he survived, and this duel was later used against him in presidential elections,
25:12arguing that he was blood hungry and he was eager to kill people. Dr. Digi Paul asks,
25:17trivia question, how many U.S. presidents have been arrested? Bonus, name them. During the
25:22presidency, just one, Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant was arrested while president for speeding
25:28down Pennsylvania Avenue in his horse and carriage, and he had been warned repeatedly by police that
25:33he was going too fast, but he couldn't help himself, and he really loved a fast ride. Tyler
25:37Syke asks, who do you guys think was the most stylish president of the 20th century? Well,
25:42Barack Obama got a lot of flack for his tan suit, but I personally thought it looked great.
25:46Other presidents that were known for being quite debonair include John F. Kennedy and
25:52Ronald Reagan as well. I Fight Possums asks, what presidents had unusual interests or hobbies? FDR
25:58was an avid stamp collector, and his stamp collection is still available at his presidential
26:03library. Cal Lover asks, how much do presidents get paid? Currently, presidents make $400,000
26:09a year. Originally, the salary was for $25,000, which was a huge amount of money in 1789 when
26:15George Washington became president, but that money had to cover rent for the president's house,
26:21labor, food, all expenses related to travel, and any time they hosted. So it actually went really
26:27quickly, and most presidents in the early republic left office in debt. Humble Translator 466 asks,
26:34which president was the best practical joker? This has to be Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson loved
26:39to play jokes on people, and in fact, he even had a car that could work in the water as a boat,
26:44and so he would drive around guests on his farm in Texas, and he would go too fast down a hill
26:50and cause them to think that they were going to run into the water, and then the car would sink,
26:54and instead it would float, and it would start puttering around like any other boat. He always
26:58got a good laugh, and he really loved their reactions. Dat Boy Chicos asks, quick, somebody,
27:03why did President Truman decide to use atomic weapons during World War II? This was a decision
27:08that President Truman agonized over, because he understood the repercussions and the scale of the
27:13death and damage that was going to be done to the Japanese people, but he believed that in doing so,
27:17he was actually saving American lives. His generals and his advisors had given him estimates for how
27:22much it would cost and how many lives would be sacrificed to try and take additional Japanese
27:28territory, and he believed that in doing so, he would end the war as quickly as possible. Real
27:32Mr. Paramount asks, so what does commander in chief mean as defined in the constitution of
27:37the United States of America? Anyone? As the constitution originally defines it, the commander
27:42in chief is the person that is in charge of the armed forces of the United States. So as president,
27:47they get to determine the officers, they can appoint people, but Congress is responsible for
27:53passing legislation that determines the rules and regulations that manage the army, navy, and other
27:59armed forces. RemoveDifferent3357 asks, do you believe Polk's war with Mexico was justified,
28:05and should we view the war as a positive or negative of his legacy? Polk's legacy is really
28:10interesting because he was generally viewed as actually one of the most effective presidents. He
28:14came into office saying he wanted to accomplish a couple of things, including annexing Texas and
28:19getting more territory in the Northwest, and he did those things, and then he left after one term.
28:25So in terms of promises made, promises kept, he is certainly up there. However, the war with Mexico
28:31was very much ginned up to try and seize additional territory, and in doing so, it killed a lot of
28:36innocent people, it displaced thousands of Native Mexicans, and it led to the expansion of slavery
28:42in the American West, which was the major trigger that led to the Civil War. MyVoteDoesntMatter asks,
28:47who's your choice for the best president on foreign policy? It's really hard to choose best
28:51and worst because there are so many options, but one of the most effective presidents on foreign
28:55policy was George H.W. Bush, who oversaw the end of the Cold War in a peaceful way. There were no
29:01nuclear explosions, there was no World War III, and he did so exercising restraint and humility. He
29:07didn't gloat, and he really could have, but he was only a one-term president. The thing is, the
29:11American people very rarely vote on foreign policy, and we tend not to reward people for wars that
29:17don't happen or for avoiding conflict. We do reward presidents when they win wars, and since George H.W.
29:23Bush didn't do that, his contributions are often not as remembered as they should be. Shahari asks,
29:28why did Martha Washington burn George's letters? Well, it's because he asked her to. Just like most
29:33people, those letters probably contained all the snarkiness and the humor and the love and the
29:39really intimate stuff that we tend to share with our loved ones. That's not how he wanted to be
29:43remembered. Instead, he wanted to be remembered as a little bit more aloof, a little bit more reserved,
29:47the image he had crafted, kind of like a marble bust, just like this one.
29:51Okay, that's it. That's all the questions. I hope you learned something. Until next time.