I don’t mean Bill Clinton or JFK with their cigars, either. My question is who was the last president who regularly smoked cigarettes while in office?
Nixon smoked cigarettes to some degree, but I believe LBJ smoked a lot.
Ford was a regular pipe smoker at the time, though I don’t think he does it anymore.
I wasn’t aware of Nixon smoking, but I was definitely going to guess LBJ. He looked like a smoker, didn’t he? His face all wrinkled up. How else do you suppose he got the angina that plagued him during the last years of his life? Cigs.
Cigars count right? In that case it would be Clinton.
Ronald Reagan has the dubious honor of being the only U.S. president to have endorsed cigarettes in print ads.
I’ve seen him in 40’s-era ads for Chesterfields.
Different era, though, and I don’t think you can hold this against him. He was a nonsmoker in office.
Jeezus, Stuffy, read the OP why don’t ya?
Me neither. I thought it was Pat, not Dick.
I’m fairly certain I once saw a photograph of the elder Bush with a cigarette, during one of those “closed door” briefings with Cheney & Powell and a few others during the Gulf war.
I remember seeing a photo of FDR smoking, he used a cigarette holder. As an aside, the expression on his face put me in mind of Batman’s foe The Penguin, who also was a smoker.
It was my understanding that Reagan smoked until some time in middle age, but gave it up in favor of jellybeans.
Clinton smoked those cigars? I would have thought they would have been…you know…a tad too moist to light?
he probably didnt inhale though 
I also seem to remember Bush being a smoker.
Peace,
mangeorge
I know that Bush Sr. smoked cigars. I don’t know about cigarettes, though.
So it appears to have been LBJ, if you stick to the OP. But why the distinction? It really doesn’t make any difference, cigars or cigarettes.
Now that you have you answer, can you tell us why you ask?
I guess I made the distinction because cigars seem to be a trendier, showier thing. It seems like almost any man in a position of power could be photographed smoking a cigar at some time in his life. Cigarettes imply more a more neurotic, impulsive side. But really i just asked out of random curiosity. I remember seeing caricatures of FDR with the martini and cigarette holder, a picture of him that was used against him by critics who saw him as an elitist.
so here’s the rundown?
FDR = smoked with the holder
JFK = cigars
LBJ = last cigarette smoker while in office
Nixon = maybe?
Ford = pipe smoker
Carter = ?
Reagan = smoked until middle age; made Chesterfield ads
Bush Sr. = ?
Clinton = cigars
Bush Jr. = too busy with other substances then … pretty much a health nut now, from what i understand
IIRC, Johnson gave up cigarets (don’t know about pipe or cigars) after his heart attack in the mid-50s, although he began smoking again after he left the White House.
And I’m pretty sure Nixon smoked cigarets while in office.
Why not? Does “smoking” only mean “cigarettes”? If so, does that mean I can start puffing on a cigar whenever I see a “no smoking” sign?
Eisenhower quit smoking after World War II, just to fill in the gap.