# Which U.S. Presidents smoked (or didn’t, depending on the default)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258 "2023-01-15T14:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/1 "2023-01-15T14:52:33Z")
Is this even something we can document? It was a random thought that occurred to me when I saw a picture of Warren G. Harding with a cigarette as he spoke to Thomas Edison. [![](https://i.ibb.co/7R3DCKK/1-CBB5-F1-B-AD64-47-E4-A1-EC-48-BCFAD82450.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/7R3DCKK/1-CBB5-F1-B-AD64-47-E4-A1-EC-48-BCFAD82450.jpg) Which Presidents smoked? As I consider it, though, I wonder if we should just start with the presumption that smoking was typical through most of history, and so I should ask the opposite: Which of our Presidents didn’t smoke? I know, in modern times, that Obama did occasionally, and that Reagan cited his jelly bean habit as his method for quitting. Gerald Ford notably smoked a pipe, and JFK ordered a bunch of Cuban Cigars right before enacting an embargo on the island. FDR had his cigarette holder. What about honest Abe, or any of the founders (especially guys who grew tobacco)? Any other notable smokers in the White House? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/2 "2023-01-15T15:17:34Z")
In spite of the fact that tobacco was a long-time main cash crop at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson supposedly [was not a smoker](https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/smoking/). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/3 "2023-01-15T16:04:38Z")
Grant was a cigar smoker, which may have led to the throat cancer that caused his death. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/4 "2023-01-15T16:32:03Z")
Lyndon Johnson was a heavy cigarette smoker before his first heart attack in 1955. He mostly gave up smoking for many years after that, but then took it up again, starting the very day he left the White House. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/5 "2023-01-15T16:35:56Z")
James Buchanan [probably smoked pole](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/175-year-history-examining-bachelor-president-james-buchanans-close-friendship-william-rufus-king-180972992/). Trump, to hear his supporters tell it, is such a pure and godly man that he never smoked or drank. Clinton loved cigars, but probably for reasons not related to smoking. A cursory Googling suggests that Biden does not smoke. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/6 "2023-01-15T17:21:45Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Clinton loved cigars, but probably for reasons not related to smoking 😲 … 😳 … 😂 (my emojinal journey upon reading this) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/7 "2023-01-15T19:52:12Z")
[Moderating] > [@HeyHomie](#): > > James Buchanan [probably smoked pole](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/175-year-history-examining-bachelor-president-james-buchanans-close-friendship-william-rufus-king-180972992/). > > Trump, to hear his supporters tell it, is such a pure and godly man that he never smoked or drank. Clinton loved cigars, but probably for reasons not related to smoking. A cursory Googling suggests that Biden does not smoke. So, let’s see, that’s a homophobic slur and two political potshots, before finally getting around to a minimal answer to the question. Yeah, that’ll be a Warning. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/8 "2023-01-15T21:52:29Z")
In researching my own OP, I found an article that provides some answers > [@](#): > > The seventh president, Tennessean Andrew Jackson, was such a regular user of plug that brass spittoons–now in his Tennessee estate, the Hermitage–were installed at the White House… > > The first president to enjoy a “seegar” was James Madison, the country’s fourth leader, who smoked until his death at 85 in 1836… > > Between the Civil War and the Second World War, more presidents smoked cigars than did not… > > Chester Arthur, a wealthy New York clubman who was the twenty-first U.S. president, from 1881 to 1885, and who was given to lavish midnight suppers, usually concluded his meals with Champagne and expensive imported cigars. > > Benjamin Harrison smoked moderately, and during his one term, 1889 to 1893, a tobacconist from his hometown, Indianapolis, supplied the White House with complimentary cigars. > > William McKinley, the twenty-fifth president, who was assassinated in 1901, neither smoked in public nor permitted himself to be photographed with a cigar, but in private he was nearly obsessive about having his smoke… > > Three-hundred-pound William Howard Taft entered his presidency, the twenty-seventh man to hold the position, as a cigar smoker, but he quit while in office. Warren G. Harding, the twenty-ninth U.S. president, was so careful about the aroma of his tobacco that he brought his cigar humidor with him to the White House from his home in Ohio… > > No president used the cigar to better advantage than Coolidge, who served from 1923 to 1929. Concious of his parsimonious and taciturn persona, “Silent Cal” manipulated situations with dramatically punctuated use of his cigar… > > Coolidge could smoke about three cigars by afternoon. On summer nights, he often sat in a rocking chair on the darkened south portico and smoked quietly while his wife knitted… > > Throughout the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s, state and private dinners at the White House often concluded with the men and women separating, the women, led by the first lady to the Red Room for coffee and cigarettes, which Eleanor Roosevelt had offered guests two decades earlier. The men would retire to the Green Room for after, dinner drinks and cigars, led by the president… > > Gerald Ford, the last U.S. president to use tobacco on a regular basis, is an inveterate pipe smoker. Ike and FDR stuck to cigarettes as did both their wives and several other twentieth-century first ladies including Jacqueline Kennedy… > > Richard Nixon, although not a regular smoker, enjoyed ritualistic cigar puffing as a statesmanlike gesture with other leaders. The Nixon administration in the early '70s was the last stand of the cigar at the White House. Besides being the last president to smoke cigars, Nixon’s was the last presidency during which cigars were offered to men after dinner in the Green Room. > **[Our Presidents and Cigars | Cigar Aficionado](https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/our-presidents-and-cigars-6103)** > > A White House tradition is in danger of disappearing. | Cigar Aficionado ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/9 "2023-01-15T22:04:22Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Grant was a cigar smoker, which may have led to the throat cancer that caused his death. How could I forget Grant? Apparently, he was photographed with a cigar, and that led people to send him thousands. This over abundance greatly increased the frequency of his smoking. > [@](#): > > “In the account published in the papers I was represented as smoking a cigar in the midst of the conflict; and many persons, no doubt thinking tobacco was my chief solace, sent me boxes of the choicest brands. As many as ten thousand were soon received.” > > Think about that: 10,000 cigars! They came with notes of appreciation. One person wrote, “You keep winning victories and I’ll keep sending cigars.” > > Grant “regifted” them on a wholesale basis. But he couldn’t keep pace with the deluge. Being a practical man, he eventually figured “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Grant put away his pipe, explaining “I naturally smoked more (cigars) than I would have under ordinary circumstances, and have done so ever since.” > **[The Gift That Killed General Grant - J. Mark Powell](https://jmarkpowell.com/the-gift-that-killed-general-grant/)** > > A simple bit of politeness and a newspaper reporter’s mistake wound up killing General Grant. Find out how an innocent mistake took his life – 23 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/10 "2023-01-16T12:57:04Z")
Except that says that before the deluge of cigars, he was a pipe smoker. It could well be that the gifts didn’t change his quantity of tobacco use, merely its form, in which case he probably would have gotten cancer anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/11 "2023-01-16T19:25:34Z")
Teddy Roosevelt was reportedly forced to smoke cigars and drink coffee by his father as a young boy (despite having asthma), but there are conflicting stories about his smoking habits as an adult, ranging from “gave it up completely” to “smoked cigars every day”. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/12 "2023-01-16T20:01:52Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Teddy Roosevelt was reportedly forced to smoke cigars and drink coffee by his father as a young boy (despite having asthma) Not just despite asthma: because of his asthma. The cigar was thought to be a cure. (Note, too, that he came from one of the wealthiest families in New York City. This was the best medical treatment at the time). ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/13 "2023-01-17T00:12:48Z")
Didn’t Obama smoke intermittently? Just not where he thought people could see him. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/14 "2023-01-17T00:45:43Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Didn’t Obama smoke intermittently? Yes, he did. > **[Has Barack Obama started smoking again?](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/11664296/Has-Barack-Obama-started-smoking-again.html)** > > Photo from last weekend's G7 summit in Bavaria shows Barack Obama on balcony reaching for a packet that looks suspiciously like cigarettes Meanwhile, in my quest to research this question, I found a picture of a pregnant Jackie Kennedy smoking a cigarette. Smoking was something she usually avoided in photographs. Times sure have changed since 1963. [![](https://vintagenewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pregnant-jackie-smoking-2.jpg) ](https://vintagenewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pregnant-jackie-smoking-2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/15 "2023-01-17T03:17:17Z")
Deleted Post ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2023, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/16 "2023-01-17T10:16:02Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Didn’t Obama smoke intermittently? Just not where he thought people could see him. Mentioned in passing in the OP, but yep. ---
**Author:** ![Bayarea4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bayarea4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayarea4)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-u-s-presidents-smoked-or-didn-t-depending-on-the-default/978258/17 "2023-01-19T05:02:49Z")
Jackie was pregnant with Patrick in this photo. I wonder if her smoking contributed to his premature birth and death at less than two days old.