ap gov unit 5 presidential roles

Chief Legislator

• Signs Bills into Laws

  • Agreeing to execute and enforce laws from Congress

Chief Diplomat - control over foreign relations

• Diplomacy = carrots

• Negotiate Treaties - Trade and Peace

  • Executive Agreements – FDR and WWII - Do not need Senate ratification

• Monitor world actions and identify threats

  • Intelligence = CIA, NSA

• Meet with “heads of state”

  • Head of state?

Commander-in-Chief

• Military = stick

• 1.4 Million in uniform, 30 International defense treaties and approx 4,000 nuclear weapons

  • 3rd in size - 1st in spending

• Commander of All Military Branches

Chief Staffer

• Appoints Cabinet members

  • Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Treasury, Attorney General, Agriculture etc…

• Appoints members of executive institutions like the Department of Labor

• Appoints Federal Judges

  • Supreme Court and lower courts

• For all these appointments, the President has to consider the politics of getting Senate approval

  • Advise and Consent

Chief Executive

• Must insure that the law is “faithfully executed” - aka the “Take Care Clause”

  • These are laws created by Congress

• Empowering and Limiting

  • President can decide how to enforce

  • President must do so “faithfully”

• The President can tell their government departments how to execute and enforce laws - That makes him the chief Crisis Manager