1. The Presidency

2. The President’s job description: head of the executive branch
The President’s job description begins in Article II, sec. 1 of the U.S. Constitution with the
Vesting clause: “ executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America,”
The vesting clause makes the president the head of government with authority over the executive branch and head of state, the symbolic and political representative of the country.

3. The President’s job description: head of the executive branch
The Constitution also makes the president in charge of implementing all the laws of the land saying, “he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Known as the “take care clause”

4. Head of the executive branch: appointments
The president appoints
Ambassadors (def: an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country.)
Senior bureaucrats (bureaucracy: the system of civil servants and political appointees who implement congressional or presidential decisions)
Members of the federal judiciary, including Supreme Court justices.

5. Head of the executive branch: appointments
Because federal judges are appointed for a lifetime, these appointments become part of the President’s legacy when he leaves office.
Anton Scalia was a conservative justice appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. Though Reagan left office at the end of his second term in 1989, Scalia’s presence as the most outspoken conservative voice on the Court continued until his death in February, 2016.

6. Head of the executive branch: appointments
As head of the executive branch, the president controls about 8,000 positions, ranging from the Secretary of State and other members of the president’s cabinet to routine administrative and clerical positions.
About 1200 of these appointments require Senate confirmation.

7. Head of the executive branch: appointments
Historically, the need for Senate confirmation has at times limited presidential power.
Presidents have often withdrawn their most controversial nominees and replaced them with candidates the Senate finds more acceptable.

8. Head of the executive branch: appointments
President Barack Obama appointed justices Elena Kagan (2010) and Sonia Sontemayor (2010) who joined Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer as the liberals on the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch, a former Court of Appeals judge, to the seat on the court vacated by the death of Anton Scalia. Gorsuch was sworn in in April, 2016.
His nomination was supported by various conservative groups. (conservative groups spent more than $3 million; liberals: $181,000).

9. Head of the executive branch: appointments
A president can bypass Senate approval by making recess appointments. (not used for federal judgeships)
By making an appointment for an ambassador or a cabinet head when Congress is not in session, the president can temporarily dodge the confirmation process.
These appointments, however, must be confirmed by a Senate vote once Congress is in session.

10. Head of executive branch: executive orders
Executive orders: Proclamations made by the president that change government policy without congressional approval.
Most famous:
Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order that freed all slaves living in the Confederate States.
FDR created the Works Progress Administration, the centerpiece of his New Deal Recovery program, by executive order in 1935.
Harry Truman integrated the U.S. military by executive order in 1948.

11. Head of executive branch: executive orders
President’s power to issue an executive order has limits.
Congress may pass a law authorizing the president to issue an executive order
Congress can also pass a law that overturns an executive order issued by the President.
Though Congress could anticipate the President would veto a law overturning an executive order and thus would need a two-thirds majority support in each house to override the President’s veto.

12. Head of executive branch: commander in chief
The Constitution makes the President the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces but gives Congress the power to declare war.
In practice, the President controls the day-to-day operations of the U.S. military through the Department of Defense
and has the power to order troops into action without explicit approval of Congress

13. Head of executive branch: commander in chief
In 2002, President George W. Bush deployed 100,000 troops into Iraq, though Congress eventually passed a resolution authorizing combat operations against Iraq after the deployment had occurred.
Subsequent deployment of troops into Iraq and Afghanistan occurred without Congressional approval.

14. Head of executive branch: commander in chief
Though the U.S. has been involved in hundreds of foreign military operations, Congress has declared war only five times:
the War of 1812
the Mexican-American War in 1846
the Spanish-American War in 1898
World War I in 1917
World War II in 1941

15. Commander in chief: the War Powers Act
Congress enacted the War Powers Resolution in 1973 because Congress felt that the President had too much power.
The conflicts in Korea and Vietnam had kept the U.S. involved in foreign military operations for more than 20 years with no declaration by Congress.
In , President Nixon had conducted operations in Cambodia in secret without informing Congress.

16. Commander in chief: the War Powers Act
The War Powers Resolution places specific limits on how the president may engage U.S. forces without consulting with Congress.
In summary, the War Powers Resolution
requires that the President, upon sending troops into military action, must notify Congress within 48 hours that he has done so.
The Resolution also forbids military personnel from remaining in a state of conflict for more than 60 days, including an additional 30 days for safe troop withdrawal.

17. Commander in chief: the War Powers Act
After that, the President must seek an additional authorization from Congress or a formal declaration of war.
Despite being in effect for 40 years, the War Powers resolution has been invoked only once:
the Mayagüez incident in 1975, considered the last official battle of the Vietnam war and involving the seizure at sea of the crew of a U.S. merchant marine ship, the Mayaguez, by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge.

18. Commander in chief: the War Powers Act
Some scholars argue that the War Powers Resolution expands presidential power by giving the president unlimited control for the first 90 days of a military operation.
The War Powers Resolution has never been reviewed by the Supreme Court and some scholars also argue that the it would not withstand a test of its constitutionality.

19. Commander in chief: the War Powers Act
Congress also can curb a president’s war-making powers through
funding restrictions
legislative prohibitions and ultimately
impeachment

20. Head of executive branch: treaty making and foreign policy
Treaty making is shared between the President and Congress.
The President and his staff negotiate treaties that are then sent to the Senate for approval by a two-thirds vote.
Congress considers treaties only after they are negotiated.
There is no Constitutional way for Congress to force the president to negotiate a treaty.

21. Head of executive branch: treaty making and foreign policy
The president may avoid a senate vote on a treaty by one of two ways:
1. The president can simply announce that the United States will abide by a treaty without ratifying it (voluntary compliance)
Bill Clinton did this to signal U.S. agreement with the international 1997 Kyoto Protocols that set limits on carbon monoxide emissions.

22. Head of executive branch: treaty making and foreign policy
2. A second strategy is to structure an executive agreement – an agreement between the executive branch of the U.S. and a foreign government which acts as a treaty but does not require senate approval.

23. Head of executive branch: treaty making and foreign policy
A treaty remains in force after the President who negotiated it leaves office;
voluntary compliance and executive agreements can be undone by a subsequent president, as was done by George W. Bush with the Kyoto Protocols.

24. Treaty making and foreign policy
The President also serves as the representative of the United States in foreign affairs, including communicating with
foreign leaders
with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
with ordinary citizens of other countries to persuade them to act in the best interests of the United States.

25. Treaty making and foreign policy
Presidents typically campaign largely on domestic issues
the time a president spends on foreign affairs while in office is dependent on world events and is largely beyond his control.
(domestic: existing or occurring inside a particular country; not foreign or international)

26. Treaty making and foreign policy: What is an NGO?
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group which is organized on a local, national or international level. NGOs
perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions
bring citizen concerns to governments
advocate and monitor policies
encourage political participation through provision of information.

27. What is an NGO?
The World Bank defines NGOs as “private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development.”

28. What is an NGO? Some examples of NGOs:
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
Medecins Sans Frontiere (Doctors without Borders)
Heifer International
Amnesty International
Red Cross
OXFAM
Catholic Relief Services
Greenpeace

29. Head of executive branch: legislative power
The Constitution establishes lawmaking as a shared power between the President and Congress.
The president cannot introduce legislation into Congress
but it is easy enough for the president to find a member of Congress who will sponsor legislation and introduce a bill on his behalf.

30. Legislative power: the veto
The president’s legislative power mostly stems from his authority to veto legislation.
Once a bill has passed both chambers, it is sent to the president for his signature and he must decide within two weeks whether to sign it or veto it.
A signed bill becomes a law.

31. Legislative power: the veto
A vetoed bill returns to the House and the Senate for a vote to override the veto.
If both chambers pass the bill again with a two-thirds majority, the veto is overridden and the bill becomes law.
If not, the bill is defeated.

32. Legislative power: the veto
If Congress adjourns before the President has made his decision, the President can exercise a pocket veto by not responding to it.
Pocket vetoes cannot be overridden.
Congressional leaders, however, can avoid pocket vetoes by keeping Congress in session for two weeks after a bill is enacted, forcing the President to either sign it or veto it.

33. Legislative power: the veto
The veto, particularly a president’s threat of a veto, is an additional source of power for the President.
Such threats signal to Congress what types of legislation he is willing or unwilling to accept.
Legislators know that they need to write legislation that will garner two-thirds support in both houses or lose out to the Presidential veto.
In 2007, George W. Bush said that he would veto any legislation that included a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq. The funding bill that Congress eventually passed for the war did not include any kind of timetable.

34. Presidential Succession
Under the Constitution, presidents are term limited to two full terms in office; Amendment XXII, ratified 1951.
A Vice-President who becomes president, if re-elected, can serve two more full terms if he or she takes over during the second half of his predecessor’s term.
Under the XXV Amendment, Section 3, a Vice-President can temporarily take over as president.

35. Presidential Succession
Vice-President Dick Cheney assumed the office of President twice in 2002 and again in 2007 when President George W. Bush underwent anesthesia for a colonoscopy.
The order of succession for the Presidency as specified in the Constitution has been altered first by the Presidential Succession Act of 1886 and again by the Presidential Succession Act of

36. Presidential Succession
If the both the President and the Vice-President were to die or become incapacitated, the Speaker of the House is next in line to become President followed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the cabinet secretaries in the order the cabinet departments were established.

37. Presidential Succession: the “designated survivor”
Whenever the entire cabinet and Congress gather in one place, such as for the annual State of the Union address, at least one member of the cabinet is assigned to be somewhere else, so that in the event of a catastrophe someone in the line of succession would survive to assume the presidency.
This cabinet member on that day is known as the “designated survivor.”
The designated survivor for the 2016 State of the Union address was Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security.

38. The Executive Office of the President
The Executive Office of the President (EOP) is a group of policy-related offices that serve as support staff to the president.
Overseen by the President’s Chief of Staff, the EOP consists of a number of organizations.

39. The Executive Office of the President
About 1,800 employees work in the offices of the EOP with about one-third of these employed in two offices:
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which develops the president’s budget proposals and monitors spending by government agencies;
The Office of the United States Trade Representative, which negotiates trade with other countries.

40. The Executive Office of the President
Among their most important duties, the EOP helps the president and candidates from his party achieve their policy goals and get re-elected.
The most influential EOP staff occupy the West Wing of the White House which contains the president’s office, known as the Oval Office.

41. The Executive Office of the President
Most EOP staff are presidential appointees who retain their positions only as long as the president remains in office.
Some EOP offices, such as the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the National Security Council, have a large number of permanent staff analysts and experts.

42. The Executive Office of the President
The president’s primary expectation in his appointments to the EOP is loyalty rather than policy expertise.
The president needs a staff who understand what he wants the government to do and who will help him in implementing this vision.
The President’s Chief of Staff coordinates White House operations. Trump’s Chief of Staff is Reince Preibus, former chair of the Republican National Committee.

43. The Vice President
The Vice-President’s job as specified in the Constitution is to preside over Senate proceedings. This is a largely ceremonial job.
The Vice-President typically only appears in the Senate chamber when his vote is needed to break a tie.
The Vice-President’s other constitutional responsibility is to become president if the president dies, is incapacitated or is impeached.

44. The Vice-President
Recent vice-presidents have played an influential role far beyond the duties assigned to them by the Constitution.
Many critics claimed that George W. Bush’s Vice-President, Dick Cheney, had too much power and some even described him as a co-president.

45. The Vice President
Of the 44 people who have become president of the United States, nine were vice-presidents who became president in midterm.
This fact was often pointed out during the presidential election of 2008 when GOP presidential candidate John McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

46. The Vice President
There was a time in American politics when vice-presidents were chosen mainly to “balance the ticket” to provide geographical or political balance as a way of attracting voters.
Eisenhower chose Richard Nixon, then a U.S. Senator from California, as a way of appealing to conservative groups within the Republican party. Eisenhower subsequently excluded Nixon from most meetings.
New Englander JFK chose Texan LBJ for his Congressional experience and to add geographical balance to the Democratic ticket in 1960 though the Kennedy’s had little respect for Johnson and found him “crude.”

47. The Vice President
In more recent years, vice-presidents have been chosen because they are like-minded and can be expected to help the president advance policy goals.
Barack Obama selected Joe Biden, in part, because Biden, with many years as chairman or ranking member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee brought foreign policy expertise to the ticket, an area in which Obama was relatively inexperienced.

48. The President’s Cabinet
The Cabinet is the group of 15 executive departments heads who implement the president’s agenda in their respective positions.

49. The President’s Cabinet
Cabinet members:
are nominated by the President and their nominations are confirmed by the Senate.
monitor the actions of lower-level bureaucrats who retain their jobs regardless of who is president and who are not necessarily sympathetic to the president’s priorities.
are chosen for a combination of loyalty and expertise.

50. Fun facts about U.S. Presidents
Gerald Ford is the only person to serve as both Vice-President of the United States and President of the United States without ever being elected by the Electoral College.

51. Fun facts about U.S. Presidents
Ronald Reagan – hero of American Conservatives -- was the only president in American history to have belonged to a union, the AFL-CIO affiliated Screen Actors Guild. Reagan served six terms as president of this organized labor group.
Reagan also was the only U.S. President before Donald Trump who had been divorced. Reagan had been previously married to actress Jane Wyman with whom he had his two elder children, Maureen and Michael. He had two more children, Patti and Ronald Reagan Jr. with second wife, Nancy.

52. Ronald Reagan’s movie career
Ronald Reagan in Bedtime for Bonzo
“Win one for the Gipper”