But in retrospect, maybe this is old news. Probably there have been other U.S. Presidents who were just plain jerks, if not in precisely the way that Trump is.
So, my question is: Which former U.S. Presidents were the biggest jerks?
A few ground rules:
[ol]
[li]Please note the “former”. Despite the fact that Trump inspired the thread, we really don’t need another thread bashing him. I’m hoping to hear about the personalities of historical Presidents.[/li]
[li]I’m talking about how they treated people excluding the effects of their policies. So for instance I might think George W. Bush was a lousy President who pursued misguided policies, but I’ve never heard of him belittling or insulting or abusing people. So he wouldn’t make my list.[/li]
[li]Let’s limit this to things they did while in office. If they were a jerk in their youth, but shaped up by the time they were elected, it doesn’t count.[/li]
[li]It doesn’t count if they were only a jerk to their opponent during a political campaign. If they continued to be a jerk to them afterwards, sure, it counts.[/li]
[*]Lastly, let’s not count people solely on the basis of slave ownership. Of course owning slaves was terrible – but I already know that list. (Here it is) If, in addition to being a slave owner, James K. Polk beat his wife, or stole money from the Church collection plate, or routinely ridiculed his Vice President during cabinet meetings, I’d want to know about it. (I’m not suggesting the offenses listed in the previous sentence are of equal severity – just that I’d consider them all evidence that Polk was a jerk.)[/ol]
I’m far from a historian, but didn’t Andrew Jackson manage to get into rather a large number of duels? If you find yourself in one duel, maybe the other guy is the asshole. But if you end up in 10 duels, odds are you’re the asshole.
Assuming the reports of Kennedy’s serial adultery are true, that makes him a pretty big jerk in my book. I can understand being unhappy in your marriage and having an affair, even if I don’t condone it. But having a string of trysts with multiple women while you’re married is pretty jerky.
Jackson was the first one I thought of, but he stood up for Peggy Eaton when the rest of Washington high society was against her even though it cost him dearly politically. So he’s got that going for him.
And LBJ almost certainly takes the philandering prize from Clinton and Kennedy (and Harding and…), in addition to all the other ways he was obsessed with his own genitals.
Right. There’s the story that LBJ wanted to get some legislation passed. An underling asked why they would listen to him or how was he going to get it done. LBJ whips out his junk and replies, “Because I’ve got this.” Seems Johnson was quite proud of his Johnson.
Others have already mentioned LBJ, but I don’t see mentioned the story about him peeing on the leg of a secret service agent. When the agent complained that it was disgusting, LBJ replied “It’s my prerogative.” Things like that and forcing assistants to come talk to him while he is in the bathroom taking a shit make him a pretty big asshole, in my opinion.
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Herbert Hoover demanded that White House staff run and hide when he walked down the halls. Apparently FDR kept the pattern up, but it was Truman who asked why people were always hiding in the bushes when he walked by.
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Jimmy Carter apparently expected his Secret Service agents to carry his bags for him. I imagine that was a misunderstanding, but it could be construed as pretty dismissive of their important function.
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I once read that Gerald Ford used to blame his farts on his Secret Service agents. Not cool, man. Not cool.
I’ve heard Ford had a wicked sense of humor. But he concealed it in public situations because he felt the public image of elected officials should be dignified.
I interpret the OP to refer to bad behavior after the President leaves office. That is, former President. Plenty of Presidents have been spoiled brats in office, Harding, Nixon, Kennedy, LBJ, etc. But from what I have read over the years, LBJ is the biggest dick after he left office. Starting with demanding the chair from Air Force One that took him back to Texas. From all I read, his behavior was bad in office and didn’t get better.
Nixon, OTOH, seemed like a pretty good person after leaving office. He paid for several kid’s college education-anonomoulsy. And one of the very few if not the only former President to send his SS detail away. He hired a former cop as a personal bodyguard to keep the scammers away and didn’t cost the Gov’t anything more in security. So I think as a former President he did quite well.
I suspect that such things are relative. A former President in the 1800’s didn’t have the opportunity to be rude to anyone-they didn’t get a lot of official attention and socially they were hardly the top tier (mostly-no money). Remember, it wasn’t until Truman, who was broke when he left office, that there was even a pension or office space provided by the Government. Grant spent his last days battling cancer and working hard on his biography so that he could provide something to his family after he died.
LBJ had an amphibious car that could be driven on water. He used to like to invite people to his ranch and invite them for a drive. He would then pretend the car was out of control and he would drive into a lake.
FDR did not get along with the white house reporters. He would make fun of them because they went to brick colleges unlike an Ivy Leaguer like himself.
Quite a few. Probably more than ten. Like many in the day an unknown number ended with both shooting in the air and declaring to be satisfied. In the case of Charles Dickinson that is not what happened. Dickinson was a renowned marksman. Jackson put on a bulky coat to try to disguise where his heart was. He stood there and took the first shot to the chest an inch from his heart. He then carefully aimed and shot Dickinson in the gut. Jackson lived Dickinson did not. He was an asshole but he was a tough son of a bitch.
Check out the new web comic strip, Two Party Opera. All presidents, all the time, Washington through Trump. Great fun, and the creator is well-schooled in history.
In only goes back to October 2016, so you can archive-binge in an hour.
I am not excusing JFK’s philandering, but I have to wonder aloud of wealthy, old-money, high-powered men of his day didn’t take on mistresses as a matter of course. By all accounts he loved Jackie dearly, even though he cheated on her with reckless abandon. Maybe Boston high society in those days just treated such things with a wink and a nod.
Which is how they should be treated, even today, for everyone. The Clinton witch hunt is a good example of why. Tons of government money and man hours wasted for nothing but Clinton banging the chunky chick that brought in the mail. None of which affected his ability as President. Other countries are completely fine with this behavior but the USA is still so damn prudish.