The Executive Branch
The Executive Branch is run by the President of the United States. According to the Constitution, in order to become President, one must be 35 years of age, they must be a natural born citizen of the United States, and they must have been a U.S. resident for 14 years. The president serves a 4 year term and due to the 22nd amendment they can only serve two terms. The president currently makes about $400,000 per year
The Vice President
The Vice President has very little constitutional power. The only power given to the Vice President is to preside over the Senate. However, in recent years the Vice President has become more relevant. Today the president involves the Vice President in more policy discussions as well as diplomacy.
Presidential Succession
If the president dies or becomes disabled, the Vice President becomes acting president. Here is the order of Presidential succession:
- Vice President
- Speaker of the House
- President Pro Tempore
- Presidents cabinet in order of position's creation (Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, etc.)
Roles of the President
The president has many roles such as Chief legislator, party leader, chief diplomat, commander in chief of the U.S. military, crisis manager, and head of state.
- Chief legislator: The president can veto bills passed by congress, meaning he can send it back to Congress with reasons for rejecting it.
- Party leader: The president works with party leaders and supports party candidates. Sometimes voters elect members of the presidents party to other political offices due to their support of the president
- Chief diplomat: The president negotiates treaties with other countries and uses executive agreements. They also try to keep peace between other nations.
- Commander in Chief: The president makes important military decisions and commands the United States military and nuclear weapons.
- Crisis manager: The American people look to the president in times of crisis for leadership, trusting that he will get them through the tough times
- Head of State: The president does some apperances with the sole purpose of getting the publics attention. Examples of this include pardoning a turkey on Thanksgiving and meeting with the Super Bowl champion team. They may seem silly at times but it makes the president look good.
The Electoral College
The President wins an election by winning the most votes in the electoral college. This is this system where each state gets as many electoral college votes as they do members of congress. This causes the larger population states like Texas and New York to get more attention than the smaller states during a presidential campaign. The flaw with the electoral college is that sometimes a presidential candidate will win the popular vote but still lose the election because the other candidate got more votes in the electoral college. Below is a map showing the distribution of electoral college votes.