Leonard Malkin

**U.S. House of Representatives**
 **Education** Georgetown University (BA)
Harvard University (JD)

**Leonard Theodore Malkin** (July 29, 1993 - November 5, 2094) was an American lawyer, editor and politician who served as the 48th President of the United States from 2033 to 2041.

Malkin is the second youngest person who was elected to office.

Before being elected to the Presidency, he was a Representative from Virginia and was an editor for the Daily Beast.

## Early Life

Born July 29, 1993 in Leesburg, Virginia. His father, Patrick Theodore Aloysius Malkin V was a Charlottesville based lawyer, Due to this, he grew up fairly wealthy. He would attend the Phillips Exeter Academy during his childhood. He would graduate from Harvard University in 2018 with mediocre grades. It is there that he met Wendy Hessing, his future wife.

## Entry into politics

Malkin first got involved in politics by working for the Terry McAuliffe campaign for the 2021 governor's race in Virginia. Although his parents were Republicans Malkin decided to register as a Democrat due to his socially liberal beliefs. He would also be a editor at the Daily Beast from 2022-2025. He was criticized for his main stream liberal beliefs and his fixation on Trump rather than the Republican party as a whole. He would resign as an editor to focus on his political ambitions. His time there would be a major reason why he would run for the Virginia house race. His opponent in the 2026 house race was devout evangelical and Donald Trump supporter Calla Narsbrook. He would win in a landslide mainly because the district was a Democratic stronghold.

## U.S. House of Representatives

During his House years he didn't have many major rules. That is, until he became chair of the House Judiciary Committee. During his chairmanship, he would push for the impeachment of at-the-time President Ron DeSantis due to his alleged corruption and bribery. It would narrowly fail due to the Republicans barely beating the Democrats in number. This impeachment attempt, however would give Malkin major national recognition. Due to his youth and Judicial career, he was even a candidate for the supreme court. This didn't go anywhere, however.

## Presidential Campaigns

### 2032

On March 12, 2030, Malkin announced his candidacy for the presidency. This announcement was noteworthy because It was a week after the start of the Iran war. Malkin emphasized the importance of ending the Iran war quickly and reforming race relations. Although Malkin's campaign promises were unremarkable, he was viewed as the favorable Democrat to Richard Ojeda, his pro-Union opponent. Due to this, the Democrats had their full support on Malkin. Ojeda would concede on July 6, 2032 therefore making Malkin the Democratic nominee. His running mate was the more progressive Democrat Andy Beshear. His Republican opponent was DeSantis' Vice President Glenn Youngkin. Malkin would ultimately win against Youngkin.

### 2040

Malkin announced his reelection campaign in 2039. Many speculated that Malkin wouldn't run due to his secrecy when it came to reelection. His opponent in the Democratic primary was House minority leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Malkin had the hardest time winning the Democratic primary since Jimmy Carter in 1980. He did however, barely win renomination. His Republican opponent was Josh Hawley, who only was the Republican nominee due to there being no major competition. Nevertheless, Malkin won reelection fairly easily.

## Presidency

Malkin was sworn in on the 20th of January, 2033. In his inaugural address, he promised the maintaining of liberalism, both economic and social and the importance of national cooperation and friendship. This address had a lukewarm reception mainly due to it being quite condescending.

Since being sworn in, Malkin had to deal with the Iran war. The President of Iran, Jaffar Khazremahni was hawkish in foreign policy and wasn't willing to sign a peace deal with the United States. Due to this, Malkin decided that the war against Iran was escalated to total war meaning that the United States was planning a full scale invasion of Iran. At first, this was an extremely unpopular decision. Congress tried to stop Malkin from expanding the Iran war. However, after Republican senate majority leader Marco Rubio, the only pro total war major congressman gave a short conference on the direness of the situation (and some alleged bribery) the Congressional stance on the war shifted. In late 2033, Speaker of the house Eric Swalwell shifted from an anti-war position to a pro-war position. However, there was still major opposition leaders such as VP Andy Beshear and House Minority leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The main argument of total war was the manpower and casualties. However, Malkin ignored these arguments and pushed for total war.

In 2034, however, the far-right insurrection group The Patriot League captured the Alabama city of Birmingham and made it their De-facto capital. The US military responded by sending the national guard causing the death of 33 people. Malkin ordered a federal investigation into The Patriot League and ordered imprisonment for all involved with the group. This investigation was criticized for it's incompetence and lack of knowledge into the group. Because of the these factors, the investigation failed. This made many progressives upset, including Andy Beshear, who decided to start his own private investigation.

While all of this was happening, Malkin's approval rating around mid-2034 stood at a mediocre 48%.

On September 1st, 2034, Malkin finallly ordered total war in Iran. U.S. troops quickly advanced towards the Iranian capital of Tehran. The Iranian government, fearing the worst decided to launch a Nuclear Missile towards the island of Qeshm, which was still Iranian territory, technically. However, the United States managed to intercept the Missile and shot it down. The next day, Jaffar Khazremahni was found dead at his home. The cause of death was ruled suicide. However, the military thought otherwise. On December 20th, 2034, the Iranian armed forces decided to coup the government of Iran citing the lack of leadership as their main justification.

Whilst the interception of the Missile was a victory for the United States, domestically it was not faring as well. Malkin was especially unpopular amongst his more progressive Democratic peers. Due to this, Beshear was seen as the main negotiator between the moderate wing and the progressive wing. Although Malkin was putting effort into more progressive actions, it was too late. A small faction of progressive Democrats left the Democratic party and formed the National Union party despite Beshear and AOC warning not to. The group was lead by future revolutionaries such as Dandridge, Jackson, Arnquist and Ojeda.

Malkin, fearing that even more of the progressive faction would leave the Democratic party decided to push for a $18 minimum wage. The minimum wage at the time was $15 and has stayed that since 2024. Progressives knew that inflation was slowly making the $15 minimum wage not worth much. So, with the help of Beshear, Malkin took advantage of this fact and successfully made the minimum wage $18 in 2035.

After the minimum wage increase, Malkin decided to drastically increase military spending. He did this by raising the tax rate. This didn't cause any major outrage mainly due to the fact that the Republicans proposed the tax increase. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean there wasn't any opposition. Tom Cotton, the governor of Arkansas started to ally himself with the National Union party (although not joining the party himself) in late 2034. During this time Malkin announced that he was expecting a new child.

After the mid-terms of 2034 concluded the Democrats got a super majority in the senate. Due to the Republicans waning in popularity, Marco Rubio was replaced with Josh Hawley as the senate majority leader. Hawley, unlike Rubio, was not cooperative with the Democrats and sought to dominate American politics. Hawley even tried to impeach Malkin. The Democratic party was, understandably, not pleased with Hawley's passive aggressive Senate policy.

In February of 2036, the United States captured the city of Isfahan. The capturing of the city resulted in the deposition of the Iranian Ayatollah by the Iranian Junta. This was also the start of the State of Iran, which was a de-facto fascist dictatorship which sought peace with the United States. So, on the 12th of May, 2036, Iran sent a peace deal. Malkin wanted to accept the peace agreement. However, Congress only accepted total war and total surrender. So the war continued until the 5th of December, 2036.

After winning reelection, Malkin was faced with controversy. Due to the mass casualties of the Iran war, Malkin was faced with much justified criticism. Beshear also was heavily critical of Malkin to the point that many speculated that Malkin would select somebody else for the Vice Presidency.

After the Iran war concluded, the US faced a inflation crisis. Malkin was blamed by much of the population. Malkin tried everything to fix the recession but to no avail. That is when the economist James Hassel proposed the "Grand Capital Strategy" to combat the recession. This strategy, although most likely due to luck, was somehow successful. This economic success, along with the victory in the Iran war, caused Malkin and the Democratic party's popularity and approval rating to skyrocket.

This popularity was widely maintained until the end of the Presidency.

At the Qeshm Army base a bombing happened on the 26th of September in 2039. Although it was most likely The Patriot League was likely at fault, Hezbollah was blamed for the Qeshm barrack bombing. Due to this tragedy, the United States established the Western Armed War Tribunal (WAWT) as an alternative to the international tribunal which the United States deemed as "bias". The President of WAWT was Malkin himself until the end of his presidency.

Malkin would slowly re-balance federal spending to what it was before the war.

Although his Vice President was Andy Beshear, he endorsed Rebecca Rolfe for the Democratic nomination.

Malkin would leave office with a 71% approval rating, one of the highest in recent history.

## Post-Presidency

### Controversy, Conviction and Move

After leaving office, Malkin decided to retire from politics. He would work as a lobbyist for a few years until he decided to work for WAWT as a war attorney. Although his approval rating was high during the presidency, his corruption was slowly being exposed to the American populace. After the revolution of 2049, he was convicted of corruption. Due to this, he and his family decided to move to Brazil so that he wouldn't be executed like his fellow president, Jerry Strauss or assassinated like Rebecca Rolfe. He would often give statements condemning the new order in the US,

### Illness and death

Malkin was a lifetime sufferer of Asthma. In 2058, a failed assassination attempt left Malkin unable to use his lungs. For the rest of his life, he would have to use a breathing device to assist his breathing. Other than that, he lived a healthy life.

He died in his home on November 5, 2094 at the age of 101.

### Legacy

Malkin is regarded as an average to below average president. During his presidency he was popular but his ratings went downhill after he left office. He is often regarded as the "Vanguard of Neoliberal thought" due to his globalist capitalist ideology.