The President and the executive branch

The President of the United States leads the executive branch, the part of government that carries out and enforces the laws. The President is also the head of state, the person who represents the whole country to the rest of the world. The President works and lives in the White House in Washington, D.C.

A presidential term is four years. Since the Twenty-second Amendment was added in 1951, a President can be elected only twice. The limit exists to keep one person from holding that much power for too long; it was written after a President had been elected four times.

The President's work has several sides. The President appoints federal judges, including the justices of the Supreme Court. The President is Commander in Chief, so the armed forces answer to the President. The President is also the chief diplomat, who meets foreign leaders and makes treaties. When Congress sends a bill to the White House, the President can sign it into law, or veto it and send it back. Day to day, the President enforces the laws that Congress has already passed.

Commander in Chief means the President is in charge of the armed forces, even though the President is a civilian and not a soldier. This keeps the military under the control of an elected leader. Only Congress, however, has the power to declare war.

The President's power meets limits at every turn. The Senate must approve judges, Cabinet members, ambassadors, and treaties. Congress controls the money and can pass a bill again over a veto. The courts can rule that an action of the President goes against the Constitution.

The Constitution sets three requirements for the job. A President must be a natural born citizen of the United States, which means a citizen from birth. A President must be at least thirty-five years old. A President must have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years. A new presidential term begins at noon on January 20.

The name of the President changes with elections, so the answer to that exam question changes too. Look it up at uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates shortly before your interview, and check the name of the Vice President at the same time.

If the President can no longer serve, the Vice President becomes President. This can happen if a President dies, resigns, or is removed from office. It can also happen for a period of time if the President is too ill to work, and the Twenty-fifth Amendment sets out how that works.

If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, the Speaker of the House of Representatives becomes President. After the Speaker comes the president pro tempore of the Senate, the senator who leads the Senate when the Vice President is away. After that come the heads of the executive departments, starting with the Secretary of State. Congress set this order by law.

The Vice President has two main jobs. The first is to be ready to take over at any moment. The second is to serve as president of the Senate, where the Vice President votes only when the senators are tied. The name of the Vice President changes with each election, so check uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the current answer.

The executive branch is far larger than one person. Its parts include the President, the Cabinet, and the federal departments and agencies with their many workers. These are the people who issue passports, inspect food, run the national parks, and collect federal taxes. The Vice President works inside the executive branch too, but if you are asked to name one part, say the President, the Cabinet, or the federal departments and agencies.

The Cabinet advises the President. It is made up of the Vice President and the heads of the executive departments. Most of those heads are called Secretary of something; the head of the Department of Justice is called the Attorney General instead. The Senate must vote to approve the person the President chooses to lead each department.

The exam asks you to name two Cabinet-level positions. There are many to choose from. Most of them are the heads of the executive departments.

Here are the Cabinet-level positions. Secretary of State. Secretary of the Treasury. Secretary of Defense. Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary of Commerce. Secretary of Education. Secretary of Energy. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Secretary of Homeland Security. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Secretary of the Interior. Secretary of Labor. Secretary of Transportation. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Attorney General. Vice President.

The 2025 test uses a slightly longer list. On that test, the defense position is written as Secretary of War (Defense). The 2025 test also accepts several agency leaders. Examples are the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Director of National Intelligence, and the United States Trade Representative.

Americans vote for President in November. Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and a presidential election is held every four years. Polling places are usually schools, libraries, and other public buildings, and most states also allow people to vote early or by mail.

When you vote for President, you are really voting for a group of people called electors, who have promised to support that candidate. All of those electors together are called the Electoral College. The Electoral College matters because it is what decides who is elected President.

Each state has as many electoral votes as it has members of Congress: two for its senators, plus one for each of its representatives. Washington, D.C., has three electoral votes under the Twenty-third Amendment, even though it has no voting members of Congress. That makes five hundred thirty-eight electoral votes in all, and a candidate needs two hundred seventy of them to win.

In almost every state, the candidate with the most votes in that state receives all of that state's electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions and divide theirs. This is why candidates campaign state by state instead of only in the largest cities.

The electors meet in their own states in December and send their votes to Congress, which counts them in early January. If no candidate reaches two hundred seventy, the House of Representatives chooses the President. The winner takes office at noon on January 20.

The Electoral College came out of an argument at the Constitutional Convention. Some of the men who wrote the Constitution wanted Congress to choose the President. Others wanted the people to elect the President directly. The Electoral College was the compromise between those two ideas.

November elections are not only about the President. The whole House of Representatives and about one third of the Senate are elected every two years. The elections halfway through a presidential term are usually called the midterms. Many states elect their governor and their local officials on the same day.