President of the United States
The President of the United States of America was the political leader of that North American nation. The president's traditional residence was the White House in Washington, DC. Arguably the most famous room within the White House was the Oval Office, the president's symbolic seat of power. By at least 1969, the president was regarded as one of the most powerful people on Earth. (DW: Day of the Moon) Indeed, the long-lasting impact of the office can be inferred from the fact that the President of Earth also resided in the White House in 4041, long after the United States had formally succeeded to a world government. (DWAM: Return of the Klytode)
List of presidents
Several American presidents were known to people like the Doctor and his friends. However, information on most of these figures — even basic details such as their terms of office — was sketchy, as direct contact with American presidents was unusual. Because of the paucity of data, it was possible to list the presidents accurately only in simple alphabetic order.
- James Buchanan (TN: Blood and Hope)
- George H. W. Bush (EDA: Interference - Book One)
- Carrol (BE: Rennigan's Record)
- Jimmy Carter (EDA: Option Lock, Interference - Book One)
- Bill Clinton (EDA: Placebo Effect)
- Tom Dering (EDA: Option Lock, PDA: Millennium Shock)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (DW: Spearhead from Space, Dreamland
- Herbert Hoover (DW: Spearhead from Space, Daleks in Manhattan)
- Thomas Jefferson (BFA: Urgent Calls)
- Lyndon Baines Johnson (DW: Spearhead from Space)
- John F. Kennedy (DW: Spearhead from Space, Silver Nemesis, Rose, Tooth and Claw, MA: Who Killed Kennedy)
- Abraham Lincoln (DW: The Chase, Spearhead from Space; TN: Blood and Hope)
- The Master - Briefly, when he turned the entire population of Earth, including Barack Obama, into a copy of himself. (DW: The End of Time)
- Felix Mather (EDA: Trading Futures)
- Richard Nixon (DW: Spearhead from Space, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon)
- Norris (NA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead, EDA: Interference - Book One)
- Barack Obama (DWM: Ghosts of the Northern Line, DW: The End of Time)
- Ronald Reagan (EDA: Option Lock, Interference - Book One)
- Springsteen (NA: Eternity Weeps, EDA: Interference - Book One)
- Schwarzenegger (DW: Bad Wolf)
- George Washington (DW: Spearhead from Space)
- Arthur Coleman Winters (DW: The Sound of Drums) - Referred to variously as "President" and "President-elect". Killed by the Toclafane.
Additionally, it was unclear who was the president said to be affected by Martin Trueman's hypnosis (SJA: Secrets of the Stars)
Timing
Of course, the Doctor did have some idea as to the rough dates certain presidents served. Certainly, he could place Abraham Lincoln in the early-to-mid 1860s, as the Fifth Doctor prevented his premature assassination just days before he was shot by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. He likely would have been able to place James Buchanan as Lincoln's predecessor, since Buhanan was widely seen as a contrast to Lincoln, and was a topic of conversation by people whom the Fifth Doctor knew. (TN: Blood and Hope) The Sixth Doctor, logically, showed detailed historical knowledge of that assassination when he and Evelyn Smythe traveled to Washington, DC just before Lincoln lost his life. (BFA: Assassin in the Limelight)
The Eighth Doctor once gave a time-ordered list of presidents, saying that if one started in the 1970s with Jimmy Carter, the list would then continue: Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Tom Dering, Springsteen and Norris. (EDA: Interference - Book One) Certainly, the Eighth Doctor would've been able to place Tom Dering at the end of the 1990s, since he and Samantha Jones spent a lot of time with that president investigating the Station Nine incident and other related events. (EDA: Option Lock)
The Tenth Doctor spouted textbook knowledge of Herbert Hoover, accurately giving Hoover's number in the order of presidents, as well as his inaugural year.
By contrast, the Eleventh Doctor seemed fuzzier than River Song on who might've been president in 1969 — though this could have been because 1969 was an inaugural year, implying that it was a year with two presidents. (DW: The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon)
Altnerate histories
There wwere a few people who were presidents in alternate timelines, such as:
- George W. Bush (WC: Death Comes to Time)
- Benjamin Franklin (BFA: Seasons of Fear, Neverland)
- Harry S Truman (DWA: Doctor Who The Official Annual 2011)
