Claim: Marc Maron interviewed a leader.

The President of the United States -LRB- informally referred to as `` POTUS '' -RRB- The terms POTUS -LRB- and SCOTUS -RRB- originated in the Phillips Code , a shorthand method created in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips for the rapid transmission of press reports by telegraph . is the head of state and head of government of the United States . The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces .   The president is considered to be one of the world 's most powerful political figures , as the leader of the only contemporary global superpower . The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world 's most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP . The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both domestically and abroad .   Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president . The power includes execution of federal law , alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive , diplomatic , regulatory and judicial officers , and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate . The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves , and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances . The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member . The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States . Since the office of President was established in 1789 , its power has grown substantially , as has the power of the federal government as a whole .   The president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term , and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers , the other being the Vice President of the United States . However , nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having been elected to the office , by virtue of a president 's intra-term death or resignation.The nine vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency upon their predecessor 's death or resignation and finished-out that unexpired term are : John Tyler -LRB- 1841 -RRB- ; Millard Fillmore -LRB- 1850 -RRB- ; Andrew Johnson -LRB- 1865 -RRB- ; Chester A. Arthur -LRB- 1881 -RRB- ; Theodore Roosevelt -LRB- 1901 -RRB- ; Calvin Coolidge -LRB- 1923 -RRB- ; Harry S. Truman -LRB- 1945 -RRB- ; Lyndon B. Johnson -LRB- 1963 -RRB- ; and Gerald Ford -LRB- 1974 -RRB- , Ford had also not been elected vice president .   The Twenty-second Amendment -LRB- adopted in 1951 -RRB- prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term . It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president , or acting president , for more than two years of another person 's term as president . In all , 44 individuals have served 45 presidencies -LRB- counting Grover Cleveland 's two non-consecutive terms separately -RRB- spanning 57 full four-year terms . On January 20 , 2017 , Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th and current president .