Trump is refusing to concede the election to Biden and reportedly planning a rally on his inauguration day. Here are 9 other famous presidential feuds in history.
By: Business Insider
Tags: History, Politics, Joe Biden, President, Donald Trump

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson’s relationship soured as they fought for power in the wake of George Washington’s presidency.

Portraits of Thomas Jefferson (left) and John Adams (right), the third and second presidents of the United States respectively. Photos: Getty Images

Founding Fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had a tumultuous off-and-on friendship before both died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, according to CNN.

Their friendship was first tested when the nation’s first president, George Washington, decided not to seek a third term, and the two ran against each other.

Adams won that election, but things turned sour when Jefferson challenged him again four years later.

Supporters for Jefferson called Adams a “hideous hermaphroditical character,” while Adam’s supporters called Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow.”

Adams was so angered at losing to Jefferson in this race that he left town early and skipped Jefferson’s inauguration.

However, the two did reconcile somewhat about a decade later, when they started exchanging letters again.

John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson fought each other in one of the most heated presidential elections in 1828.

Portraits of Andrew Jackson (left) and John Quincy Adams (right), the seventh and sixth presidents of the United States. Photo: Getty Images

Historians consider the 1828 presidential election to be one of the nastiest in US history, according to CNN.

The reasons for this date back to the previous election, in 1824, which was also between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

Adams won, and many felt that Jackson had been robbed of victory because of a deal that Adams cut with another contender, Henry Clay, whom he later made his secretary of state.

Adams and Jackson were also extremely different men.

Adams was the son of the nation’s second president, came from a prominent New England family, was Harvard-educated, and had spent a good portion of his life abroad.

Jackson, meanwhile, had a tough upbringing, during which he was kidnapped and beaten by British soldiers, orphaned, and largely had to fend for himself in South Carolina.

During the 1828 election, Adams was called a pimp, while Jackson’s wife was labeled a slut.

According to The Atlantic, when Jackson eventually won, his supporters stormed the White House and Adams had to secretively escape.

Andrew Johnson refused to attend the inauguration of his successor Ulysses S. Grant.

Presidents Ulysses S. Grant (left) and Andrew Johnson (right). Photos: Getty Images

While Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant was a member of Andrew Johnson’s Democrat party earlier in his life, he switched sides after Johnson became president following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

Grant and Johnson disliked each other so much that Grant refused to ride to his inauguration with Johnson in his carriage, as was the custom at the time, according to The Atlantic.

As a result, Johnson refused to go to the ceremony and stayed at the White House.

Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt traded personal barbs during the 1932 election.

President Herbert Hoover (left) riding with Franklin D. Roosevelt on Roosevelt’s inauguration day in 1933. Photo: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

The 1932 election was a fraught battle between Republican President Herbert Hoover and his Democratic challenger, Franklin D. Roosevelt, as they argued over the best ways to lift the country out of the Great Depression.

During the election, the men launched personal attacks against each other, with Hoover calling Roosevelt a “chameleon on plaid” and Roosevelt calling Hoover a “fat, timid capon,” according to The Atlantic.

McCarthyism turned once-allies Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower into foes.

President Harry Truman (left) with General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1945. Photo: Marie Hansen/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

President Harry S. Truman and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had a friendly relationship until the latter decided to run for president in 1952.

Truman, who was supporting the Democratic nominee in the election, Adlai Stevenson, started to criticize Eisenhower, who was running on the Republican ticket.

Among the jabs he threw at Eisenhower was an accusation that he didn’t protect Gen. George Marshall from attacks by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, according to an archivist at the Truman presidential museum.

McCarthy’s allegations of treason against Marshall put Eisenhower in a tough spot since McCarthy was a Republican and Marshall was one of his mentors.

Eisenhower initially planned to condemn McCarthy and publicly support Marshall in a speech on the campaign trail in McCarthy’s home state of Wisconsin, but eventually decided against it, according to PBS.

Nevertheless, he didn’t like being criticized for it.

“Eisenhower, a relative newcomer to presidential politics, took Truman’s campaign attacks personally and was bitter about them for years,” Truman archivist Samuel W. Rushay Jr. wrote.

John F. Kennedy had an awkward relationship with his vice president and successor Lyndon B. Johnson.

President John F. Kennedy with his then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1961. Photo: Paul Schutzer/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

While Lyndon B. Johnson was John F. Kennedy’s vice president, the two weren’t exactly best friends.

For one, Johnson did not approve of Kennedy’s appointment of his brother Bobby as Attorney General. Johnson called Bobby Kennedy a “snot-nosed little son of a b — — ,” according to Politico.

In fact, when he became president after Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, Johnson signed an anti-nepotism law making sure it wouldn’t happen again.

Johnson also did not like the limited power he was given in Kennedy’s administration.

In a later interview Johnson said that his private meetings with the president were extremely awkward.

‘’Every time I came into John Kennedy’s presence. I felt like a goddamn raven hovering over his shoulder,” he said, according to The New York Times.

Richard Nixon also made an enemy out of Johnson when he subverted Vietnam peace talks.

President Lyndon B. Johnson (left) speaks with his then-recently elected successor Richard Nixon in 1963. Photo: Corbis via Getty

President Lyndon B. Johnson became furious with Richard Nixon after he found evidence that the then-Republican presidential nominee was trying to sabotage the Vietnam War peace talks.

Over the years it was revealed that Nixon had a representative convince the South Vietnamese to drop out of the peace talks, with the promise that they would get a much better deal under Nixon.

Nixon was afraid that if peace was brokered under Johnson, then his vice president Hubert Humphrey would win the election.

In tapes that were later declassified, Johnson said Nixon was guilty of treason and had “blood on his hands.”

Ronald Reagan’s election made Jimmy Carter a one-term president, and the transition was less than friendly.

President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan shake hands at a presidential debate in 1980. Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s time in office was cut short when Republican candidate Ronald Reagan beat him in the 1980 election, making Carter a one-term president.

The transition between administrations was not a happy one.

According to The New York Times, at a White House meeting about the transition, Carter got upset with Reagan for reportedly not paying enough attention or taking notes.

It was also reported that Nancy Reagan asked if the Carters could move into Blair House — the president’s guest house — a few weeks before Inauguration Day so that the Reagans could get a head start on redecorating the White House.

Blair House is usually where incoming presidents stay on the night before their inauguration.

President Donald Trump has been criticizing and insulting President Barack Obama since he was a private citizen, and Obama has lashed out at Trump since the 2020 election.

Then-President Barack Obama, right, shakes hands with Donald Trump at the White House shortly after the real estate mogul won the 2016 presidential election. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

The bad blood between President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Barack Obama, has been evident throughout the years.

Trump has criticized and insulted Obama since he was a private citizen, and has reversed or sought to reverse many of Obama’s policies as president.

Obama had refrained from openly criticizing his successor until the 2020 presidential election, when he slammed the Trump administration’s COVID-19 response, called Trump’s approach to governance “mean-spirited,” and mocked Trump for being “jealous of COVID’s media coverage.”

After Trump lost the election, Obama even joked that Trump might have to get dragged out of the White House by Navy SEALs if he keeps refusing to concede.

For more great stories, visit Business Insider’s homepage.