# What if the President had a twin brother? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2007, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872 "2007-09-12T04:16:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/21 "2007-09-12T14:13:27Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] Once he is elected the secret service watches him like a hawk. No one would have an opportunity to make the switch. The guy is never alone. Even if the imposter was his brother and was allowed into a room alone with him and had a disentegration ray gun the secret service is going to get suspicious when only one guy comes out. If he didn’t have a disentegration ray gun how would he dispose of the body without the Secret Service knowing. [/QUOTE] Not only all of that, but by the time they reach 35 even identical twins are not longer identical in appearence. If you know them well you can tell which is which. My father was an identical twin and no family member ever mistook one for the other. And I see I was beaten to it. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/22 "2007-09-12T14:24:44Z")
Two GWBs??? God forbid ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/23 "2007-09-12T14:48:27Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] The guy is never alone. [/QUOTE] Not even for a quick wank? Man, no wonder these guys end up being wound so tight. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/24 "2007-09-12T14:56:02Z")
[QUOTE=shimmery] I don’t suppose you’ve ever seen the mildly humorous Kevin Kline film [Dave](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106673/)? [/QUOTE] Or [Moon Over Parador?](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095654/) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/25 "2007-09-12T16:33:09Z")
Saddam Hussein, Hitler and Stalin allegedly all had lookalikes as assassination bait. Some even had surgery to improve the resemblance. No one could rise to the American Presidency without his or her sibling(s) being at least somewhat in the public eye. If the President had a twin, everyone would know about it, and the Secret Service and White House staff would be on guard against any substitution. Not gonna happen. This is a popular trope in fiction, though. These are old stories, so I won’t spoiler-box them: _Dave_, mentioned above, is a good flick. I recommend it. In the novel _The President’s Plane is Missing_, the President’s similar-appearing (but not twin) brother flies aboard Air Force One while the President is busy at Camp David with top-secret diplomatic negotiations. The brother is seen boarding the plane, from a distance, by the press corps. Then the plane crashes and everyone thinks the President’s dead, before he dramatically comes out of hiding. In Robert Heinlein’s _Double Star_, a stage actor who’s a near-double for a beloved but ill FDR-type planetary leader fills in for him. When the leader dies, the actor gets the gig on an extended basis. Mark Twain wrote _The Prince and the Pauper_, about a lookalike for Edward VI, the British boy-king. Jack Higgins’s _The Eagle Has Landed_ is about a Nazi attempt to kidnap or kill Winston Churchill. Turns out he’s got a double for security purposes. Zany hijinks ensue (a pretty gripping story, actually). ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/26 "2007-09-12T17:39:21Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] If the President’s fingerprints aren’t on record, I’d be very surprised. [/QUOTE] I agree. Many years ago I had summer jobs in the Federal government. They fingerprint everybody in the civil service for identification purposes. As **Baldwin** noted, the President is cleared all the way up to the Double Secret Probation files; I imagine that security clearance paperwork also includes fingerprints for identification. ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/27 "2007-09-12T17:50:39Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] This is a popular trope in fiction, though. [/QUOTE] It also pops up in Dumas’ Musketeer sequel _The Vicomte de Bragelonne_, the third and final section of which is often titled “The Man in the Iron Mask” in English. Aramis, one of the musketeers, attempts to replace Louis XIV on the throne of France with the titular man in the mask, who is his identical twin. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/28 "2007-09-12T18:16:15Z")
[QUOTE=Amok] It also pops up in Dumas’ Musketeer sequel _The Vicomte de Bragelonne_, the third and final section of which is often titled “The Man in the Iron Mask” in English. Aramis, one of the musketeers, attempts to replace Louis XIV on the throne of France with the titular man in the mask, who is his identical twin. [/QUOTE] Right you are. How could I have forgotten that? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/29 "2007-09-12T18:41:40Z")
Two of the musketeers, Aramis _and_ Porthos! Porthos never gets no respect. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/30 "2007-09-12T18:54:35Z")
Everything else notwithstanding, many people in this thread are making a big deal about his fingerprints being on file for one reason or another. Sure. I bet they are. But on how many occasions do you think his fingerprints have been taken again and compared with previous ones? Very few, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/31 "2007-09-12T18:58:55Z")
[QUOTE=Nanoda] Everything else notwithstanding, many people in this thread are making a big deal about his fingerprints being on file for one reason or another. Sure. I bet they are. But on how many occasions do you think his fingerprints have been taken again and compared with previous ones? Very few, I’d say. [/QUOTE] Normally, yes, but if he had an identical twin that few people could tell apart, don’t you think the Secret Service might check every once in awhile? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/32 "2007-09-12T21:48:49Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] In the novel _The President’s Plane is Missing_, the President’s similar-appearing (but not twin) brother flies aboard Air Force One while the President is busy at Camp David with top-secret diplomatic negotiations. The brother is seen boarding the plane, from a distance, by the press corps. Then the plane crashes and everyone thinks the President’s dead, before he dramatically comes out of hiding. [/quote] Actually, though President Jeremy Haines’ older brother, a Senator, does indeed look somewhat like him, and a handful of reporters who are starting to suspect shenanigans _hypothesize_ that the brother was the man on the plane, there’s a dramatic moment where the brother steps forward, having been on some isolated fishing vacation in Vermont or something, leading one journalist to sadly (but of course, incorrectly) conclude that Jeremy Haines is dead. The impostor, as I recall, turned out to be just some guy who looked enough like Haines to be hired for the occasion, though he needed elevated shoes. It’s entirely possible the 1973 movie adaptation fudged things a bit. A 1993 episode of _SNL_, hosted by Charlton Heston, included a sketch presented as a mock movie trailer for the political thriller _The President is Illiterate_, by the same author as _The President’s Wallet is Missing_. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/33 "2007-09-13T00:23:43Z")
If there were two of them, I wonder which would be code named “Dumberer” by the Secret Service… ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/34 "2007-09-13T00:31:43Z")
Nobel laureate Irving Wallace wrote a gripping, entirely plausible book called _The Second Lady_, in which the KGB replaces the President’s **wife** with a double. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/35 "2007-09-13T01:56:38Z")
Akira Kurosawa’s film [Kagemusha](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080979) also makes use of this device, with a thief impersonating a 16th-century Japanese warlord. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/36 "2007-09-13T02:11:25Z")
[QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD] If there were two of them, I wonder which would be code named “Dumberer” by the Secret Service… [/QUOTE] [Moderating] As **tomndebb** has already requested, please keep your remarks in this thread factual and refrain from cheap political shots. This goes for everyone else, too. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/37 "2007-09-13T13:42:01Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] [Moderating] As **tomndebb** has already requested, please keep your remarks in this thread factual and refrain from cheap political shots. This goes for everyone else, too. Colibri General Questions Moderator [/QUOTE] Apologies offered. Did not see that it had been placed in GQ. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/38 "2007-09-13T17:11:39Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] Two of the musketeers, Aramis _and_ Porthos! Porthos never gets no respect. [/QUOTE] Respect? Hell, he doesn’t even get [cheese!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porthos_%28Star_Trek%29) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872/39 "2007-09-14T17:20:07Z")
[QUOTE=marshmallow] It could be voluntary – maybe he’s stressed and wants out. Or he’s more of a practical joker. It’s much less messy that way. They could simply switch clothes and no one would be the wiser. [/QUOTE] Most of the literary and movie references cited in this thread have the switch occur on an involuntary basis (at least on the part of the head-of-state). But the thoroughly charming [_The Emperor’s New Clothes_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282768/) has an exiled Napoleon (Ian Holm) intentionally switches places with a double so he can be free to travel at will and facilitate a return to power. Problems occur, of course, when the switchee doesn’t want to switch back. Definitely worth checking out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-president-had-a-twin-brother/418872.md?page=1)