In his second term, Donald Trump created a “Presidential Hall of Fame” display, in which he excoriated former President Joe Biden, trying to publicly humiliate him with an unbridled denunciation. Trump’s action may have been the greatest display of disrespect by a president for a former president, but it was not the first.
George Washington was such a revered fatherly figure that no president disparaged him, although John Adams was displeased when he was deprived of acclaim at his inauguration, because the attention and praise centered on the departing Washington and his legacy. Other presidents were mentors or role models to their successors, such as Jefferson to Madison and Monroe. Abraham Lincoln was admired by Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, and other Reconstruction presidents but vilified in the South. Relationships could be political rather than paternal. Martin Van Buren toadied to Andrew Jackson, but his innovative campaigning style fueled Jackson’s election victories. Although not necessarily a role model, Franklin Roosevelt knew the difficulties Woodrow Wilson had getting the Treaty of Versailles through the Senate after World War I. This knowledge may have influenced his choice for vice president, because Harry Truman was known for his ability to work effectively with his fellow senators.
The unaffable John Adams feuded with his successor, Thomas Jefferson, but the times and people around them caused the quarrel as much as the personalities. The country’s direction was still emerging. The fiery Alexander Hamilton stirred the country toward war against France, which had affronted the new country, but President Adams sent emissaries to seek peace. Hamilton’s public attack on Adams split and doomed the Federalist party. Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts and raised taxes to fund the army’s expansion to prepare for war. Jefferson’s Republicans exploited these unpopular measures to persuade the public against Adams and stymie his reelection chances. The bitter Adams felt betrayed and left the Presidential Mansion before Jefferson’s inauguration. The two did not speak to each other for 12 years.
A crude and caustic Andrew Jackson stood out against the aristocratic first presidents, as the political presence of the common man and the frontier were growing. In the 1824 election, he garnered the most popular votes, but not enough electoral votes to get elected, sending the contest to the House of Representatives. Speaker Henry Clay supported John Quincy Adams, giving him the electoral majority. Adams appointed Clay Secretary of State when he became president, causing Jackson’s supporters to cry “Corrupt Bargain.” They controlled both houses of Congress and blocked nearly every one of Adams’s initiatives. They relentlessly harangued Adams throughout his presidency and into the election of 1828, with scathing personal attacks. Like his father, John Quincy Adams left Washington before Jackson’s inauguration.
Almost no subsequent president admired John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, or Chester Arthur. Yet their criticism did not rise to the level of the scorn of Jefferson-Adams or Jackson-Adams. Ulysses Grant worked secretly to undermine Andrew Johnson and get himself elected, which left Johnson bitter against Grant. Johnson and Trump were the other presidents who did not attend the successors’ inaugurations.
Grover Cleveland clashed frequently with Woodrow Wilson, but outside their presidencies. Cleveland retired to Princeton, New Jersey, and joined the University’s Board of Trustees. He opposed many of Princeton’s president Wilson’s progressive reforms, including his Quad plan and other innovations aimed at increasing interaction among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.
Presidents often clashed with one another during elections. Harrison and Van Buren conducted a spiteful campaign in 1840 while avoiding the issues. Harry Truman was testy toward most Republicans. Egregious disrespect erupted from Theodore Roosevelt against William Taft in 1912 and from Franklin Roosevelt against Herbert Hoover in 1932. The Roosevelts’ attacks were personal, incessant, and multidimensional. Newly elected Franklin Roosevelt walked out of a meeting that President Hoover arranged to address the depression and to orient him to the White House.
John Kennedy and Richard Nixon had an extremely close election. Nixon was urged to contest the Chicago (Mayor Daley) and Texas (Lyndon Johnson) voting, but he chose not to, saying that he wanted to avoid dividing the nation. The Kennedy-Johnson primary contest was more heated, but neither directly brandished the other’s known illnesses (Kennedy’s Addison’s Disease and Johnson’s heart disease).
The interactions between presidents encompassed the full range of human relationships. Most presidents were tolerant and often friendly to their rivals. Grover Cleveland suspended campaigning when President Benjamin Harrison’s wife became ill (and died) with tuberculosis. During the 1992 presidential election, George H. W. Bush’s Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, Elizabeth Tamposi, directed a government search of Bill Clinton’s passport files, seeking evidence that he had tried to renounce his U.S. citizenship while studying in Britain during the Vietnam War. When Bush found out, he fired Ms. Tamposi for “the abuse of political power.”
After their presidencies, Bill Clinton asked George H. W. Bush to work with him to raise funds for major relief projects, such as the recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Ford and Carter, both known for their congeniality, became close friends after their presidencies; their families often vacationed together. It seems that most Americans would like to see their leaders act civilly toward the other members of the “President’s Club,” even when the presidents disagree.