President of the United States The President of the United States ( informally referred to as " POTUS " ) 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 in the United States 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 Twenty - second Amendment ( adopted in 1951 ) 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 ( counting Grover Cleveland ' s two non - consecutive terms separately ) spanning 57 full four - year terms . On January 20 , 2017 , Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th and current president . Origin . In 1776 , the Thirteen Colonies , acting through the Second Continental Congress , declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution . The new states , though independent of each other as nation state s , recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British . Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy , Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states . As a central authority , Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power ; it could make its own resolutions , determinations , and regulations , but not any laws , nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens . This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion : a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire . Out from under any monarchy , the states assigned some formerly royal prerogative s ( " e . g . " , making war , receiving ambassadors , etc . ) to Congress , while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments . Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1 , 1781 , when Maryland became the final state to ratify them . In 1783 , the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies . With peace at hand , the states each turned toward their own internal affairs . By 1786 , Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak , their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another , witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports , their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North Africa n pirates , and their foreign - financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest . Civil and political unrest loomed . Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785 , Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states , set for September 1786 in Annapolis , Maryland , with an aim toward resolving further - reaching interstate commercial antagonisms . When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states , the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles , to be held the next spring in Philadelphia . Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington ' s attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia . When the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787 , the 12 state delegations in attendance ( Rhode Island did not send delegates ) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments . Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers , elected annually by the legislature to a single term only , sharing power with an executive council , and countered by a strong legislature . New York offered the greatest exception , having a strong , unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three - year term , and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter . It was through the closed - door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U . S . Constitution emerged . Powers and duties . Article I legislative role . The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto . The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law . Once the legislation has been presented , the president has three options : In 1996 , Congress attempted to enhance the president ' s veto power with the Line Item Veto Act . The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill , particularly any new spending , any amount of discretionary spending , or any new limited tax benefit . Congress could then repass that particular item . If the president then vetoed the new legislation , Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means , a two - thirds vote in both houses . In " Clinton v . City of New York " , , the U . S . Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional . Article II executive powers . War and foreign affairs powers . Perhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander - in - chief . While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress , the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military . The present - day operational command of the Armed Forces ( belonging to the Department of Defense ) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense , with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , to the Combatant Command s , as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan ( UCP ) . The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president ' s powers regarding the military ; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No . 69 : Congress , pursuant to the War Powers Resolution , must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days , although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed , rendering it ineffectual . Additionally , Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation . While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war , critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations , including Theodore Roosevelt ' s military move into Panama in 1903 , the Korean War , the Vietnam War , and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990 . Along with the armed forces , the president also directs U . S . foreign policy . Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense , the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States . The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments , and negotiates treaties with other nations , which become binding on the United States when approved by two - thirds vote of the Senate . Administrative powers . The president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to " take care that the laws be faithfully executed " . The executive branch has over four million employees , including members of the military . Presidents make numerous executive branch appointments : an incoming president may make up to 6 , 000 before taking office and 8 , 000 more while serving . Ambassadors , members of the Cabinet , and other federal officers , are all appointed by a president with the " advice and consent " of a majority of the Senate . When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days , the president may make recess appointment s . Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate . The power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue . Generally , a president may remove purely executive officials at will . However , Congress can curtail and constrain a president ' s authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute . The president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive order s that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power . Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation . To manage the growing federal bureaucracy , Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff , who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States . Within the Executive Office , the President ' s innermost layer of aides ( and their assistants ) are located in the White House Office . Juridical powers . The president also has the power to nominate federal judges , including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States . However , these nominations require Senate confirmation . Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance . When nominating judges to U . S . district courts , presidents often respect the long - standing tradition of senatorial courtesy . Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves ( Bill Clinton pardoned Patty Hearst on his last day in office ) , as is often done just before the end of a presidential term , but not without controversy . Historically , two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy . The first is executive privilege , which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties . George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay ' s notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain . While not enshrined in the Constitution , or any other law , Washington ' s action created the precedent for the privilege . When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal , the Supreme Court ruled in " United States v . Nixon " , , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution . When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal , the Supreme Court ruled in " Clinton v . Jones " , , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits . These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid , although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined . Additionally , federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees , but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president . The state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security . Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in " Totten v . United States " , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy . However , the privilege was not formally recognized by the U . S . Supreme Court until " United States v . Reynolds " , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege . Before the September 11 attacks , use of the privilege had been rare , but increasing in frequency . Since 2001 , the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation , thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims , as in the Ninth Circuit ' s ruling in " Mohamed v . Jeppesen Dataplan , Inc . " Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions . Legislative facilitator . The Constitution ' s Ineligibility Clause prevents the President ( and all other executive officers ) from simultaneously being a member of Congress . Therefore , the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress . However , the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation , especially if the president ' s political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress . For example , the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress . The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated , periodic reports to Congress . These reports may be either written or oral , but today are given as the State of the Union address , which often outlines the president ' s legislative proposals for the coming year . Additionally , the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made . In the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress . As the head of the executive branch , presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress . One critic charged that presidents could appoint a " virtual army of ' czars ' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House " . Presidents have been criticized for making signing statement s when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it . This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional . Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an " increasingly swollen executive branch " and " the eclipse of Congress " . According to of the Constitution , the president may convene either or both houses of Congress . If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment , the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn . Ceremonial roles . As head of state , the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents . William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium , Washington , D . C . , on the ' Opening Day . Every president since Taft , except for Jimmy Carter , threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day , the All - Star Game , or the World Series , usually with much fanfare . The President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization . Other presidential traditions are associated with American holidays . Rutherford B . Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children . Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S . Truman administration , every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation held at the White House . Since 1989 , when the custom of " pardoning " the turkey was formalized by George H . W . Bush , the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life . Presidential traditions also involve the president ' s role as head of government . Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition . Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president . During a state visit by a foreign head of state , the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn , a custom begun by John F . Kennedy in 1961 . This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening . The modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation ' s premier celebrities . Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves . One critic described the presidency as " propagandized leadership " which has a " mesmerizing power surrounding the office " . Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo - ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras . One critic wrote the image of John F . Kennedy was described as carefully framed " in rich detail " which " drew on the power of myth " regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions . As a result , some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents : voters expect a president to " drive the economy , vanquish enemies , lead the free world , comfort tornado victims , heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit - card fees " . Critics of presidency ' s evolution . Most of the nation ' s Founding Fathers expected the Congress , which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution , to be the dominant branch of government ; they did not expect a strong executive . However , presidential power has shifted over time , which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful , unchecked , unbalanced , and " monarchist " in nature . Critic Dana D . Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards " undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies " . She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding " the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders , decrees , memorandums , proclamations , national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid , interference or consent from Congress " . Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was " the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule " . Selection process . Eligibility . of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency : A person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions : Campaigns and nomination . The modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections , which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions , where the most successful candidate is made the party ' s nominee for president . Typically , the party ' s presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee , and this choice is rubber - stamped by the convention . The most common previous profession of U . S . presidents is lawyer . Nominees participate in nationally televised debates , and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees , third party candidates may be invited , such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates . Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views , convince voters and solicit contributions . Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives . Election and oath . The president is elected indirectly . A number of electors , collectively known as the Electoral College , officially select the president . On Election Day , voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors . Each state is allocated a number of electors , equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined . Generally , the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state ' s electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College . The winning slate of electors meet at its state ' s capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December , about six weeks after the election , to vote . They then send a record of that vote to Congress . The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president — acting in that role ' s capacity as President of the Senate — and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress , which was elected at the same time as the president . Pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment , the president ' s term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election . This date , known as Inauguration Day , marks the beginning of the four - year terms of both the president and the vice president . Before executing the powers of the office , a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath : Although not required , presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added , " So help me God ! " to the end of the oath . Further , although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths , presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States . Tenure and term limits . The term of office for president and vice president is four years . George Washington , the first president , set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms . Before Franklin D . Roosevelt , Ulysses S . Grant and Theodore Roosevelt each unsuccessfully sought a third term . In 1940 , Franklin D . Roosevelt was elected to a third term after being " drafted " by his party . In 1941 , the United States entered World War II , leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944 . Roosevelt died on April 12 , 1945 , 82 days into his fourth term . After the war , and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms , the Twenty - second Amendment was adopted . The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice , or once if that person served more than half of another president ' s term . Harry S . Truman , president when this amendment was adopted , was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third ( a second full ) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election . Since the amendment ' s adoption , five presidents have served two full terms : Dwight D . Eisenhower , Ronald Reagan , Bill Clinton , George W . Bush and Barack Obama . Jimmy Carter and George H . W . Bush sought a second term , but were defeated . Richard Nixon was elected to a second term , but resigned before completing it . Lyndon B . Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total , having served for only fourteen months following John F . Kennedy ' s assassination . However , Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary , surprising many Americans . Gerald Ford sought a full term , after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon ' s second term , but was not elected . Vacancy or disability . Vacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances : death , resignation and removal from office . Under Section 3 of the Twenty - fifth Amendment , the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president , who then becomes acting president , by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President " pro tempore " of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer . The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting , to those two officials , a written declaration stating that resumption . This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate ; in 2002 and again in 2007 , President George W . Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney . In both cases , this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated ; both times , Bush returned to duty later the same day . Under Section 4 of the Twenty - fifth Amendment , the vice president , in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet , may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president " pro tempore " of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties . If this occurs , then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president ; however , the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties . If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim , it is up to Congress , which must meet within two days if not already in session , to decide the merit of the claim . The United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president , but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity . Pursuant to federal law , the only valid evidence of the president ' s resignation is a written instrument to that effect , signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State . This has only occurred once , when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect . Section 1 of the Twenty - fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office , death or resignation of the preceding president . The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person , the next officer in the presidential line of succession , the Speaker of the House , becomes acting president . The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate , followed by every member of the Cabinet . These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president ; ineligible individuals are skipped . Political affiliation . Throughout most of its history , politics of the United States have been dominated by political parties . Political parties had not been anticipated when the U . S . Constitution was drafted in 1787 , nor did they exist at the time of the first presidential election in 1788 – 1789 . Organized political parties developed in the U . S . in the mid – 1790s , but political factions , from which organized parties evolved , began to appear almost immediately after the Federal government came into existence . Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as " pro - administration " and would eventually form the Federalist Party , while those in opposition joined the emerging Democratic - Republican Party . Greatly concerned about the very real capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding the nation together , Washington remained unaffiliated with any political faction or party throughout his eight - year presidency . He was , and remains , the only U . S . president never to be affiliated with a political party . Since George Washington , 43 persons have been sworn into office as President , and all have been affiliated with a political party at the time they assumed office . The number of presidents per political party are : Compensation . Since 2001 , the president has earned a $ 400 , 000 annual salary , along with a $ 50 , 000 annual expense account , a $ 100 , 000 nontaxable travel account , and $ 19 , 000 for entertainment . The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001 . The White House in Washington , D . C . , serves as the official place of residence for the president . As well as access to the White House staff , facilities available to the president include medical care , recreation , housekeeping , and security services . The government pays for state dinners and other official functions , but the president pays for personal , family and guest dry cleaning and food ; the high food bill often amazes new residents . Naval Support Facility Thurmont , popularly known as Camp David , is a mountain - based military camp in Frederick County , Maryland , used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests . Blair House , located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park , is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding of floor space which serves as the president ' s official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed . For ground travel , the president uses the presidential state car , which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac - based chassis . One of two identical Boeing VC - 25 aircraft , which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747 - 200B airliners , serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as " Air Force One " while the president is on board ( although any U . S . Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as " Air Force One " for the duration of the flight ) . In - country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both , one primary and one backup . Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight . The president also has access to a fleet of thirty - five U . S . Marine Corps helicopters of varying models , designated " Marine One " when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet . Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would - be threats . The U . S . Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family . As part of their protection , presidents , first ladies , their children and other immediate family members , and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codename s . The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted ; today , the names simply serve for purposes of brevity , clarity , and tradition . Post - presidency . Under the Former Presidents Act , all living former presidents are granted a pension , an office , and a staff . The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval . Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration ' s cabinet secretaries , which was $ 199 , 700 each year in 2012 . Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pension s . The act also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges . Prior to 1997 , all former presidents , their spouses , and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president ' s death . In 1997 , Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office . On January 10 , 2013 , President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him , George W . Bush , and all subsequent presidents . A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection . Some presidents have had significant careers after leaving office . Prominent examples include William Howard Taft ' s tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover ' s work on government reorganization after World War II . Grover Cleveland , whose bid for reelection failed in 1888 , was elected president again four years later in 1892 . Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House : John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives , serving there for seventeen years , and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875 . John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives , but died before that body first met . Presidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events . Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman . Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner , international arbiter , and election monitor , as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize . Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador , most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists , Laura Ling and Euna Lee , from North Korea . Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended , working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his 2012 reelection campaign . Presidential libraries . Since Herbert Hoover , each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers , records and other documents and materials . Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration ( NARA ) ; the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private , non - federal sources . There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system . There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education , such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum , which is run by the State of Illinois , the George H . W . Bush Presidential Library and Museum , which is run by Texas A & M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum , which is run by the University of Texas at Austin . As many presidents live for many years after leaving office , several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries , some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site . Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document , such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda , California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley , California . The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries . Presidential administrations . < categorytree mode = " pages " hideroot = " on " > United States presidential administrations < / categorytree > Lists relating to the United States presidency . List of Presidents of the United States < categorytree mode = " pages " hideroot = " on " > Lists relating to the United States presidency < / categorytree >