List of other fictional United States Presidents

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Contents

[edit] Unnamed presidents

Unnamed President in: Advise and Consent

Unnamed President in: Amazing Grace and Chuck

Unnamed President in: "Area 7" by Matthew Reilly

  • Previous Governor of Large Southwestern State (probably Texas)
  • Has satellite emitter secretly attached to his heart (if his heart stops beating, massive plasma bombs will explode all around the North of America)
  • Televised assault on President (referred to as the "Prez" by Mother) by Caesar Russel during attempted reformation of America to pre-Civil War state
  • Accompanies Shane Schofield around the complex and into space
  • Awards participants in the battle classified medals at the end of the book

Unnamed President in: Armageddon

  • Makes a speech before the astronauts set off to destroy the asteroid.
  • Approved a premature detonation of NASA's nuclear warhead to deflect the asteroid after the drilling of the asteroid proceeds badly; the astronauts stopped the detonation and were able to finish the mission.
  • Played by: Stanley Anderson

Unnamed President in: Atomic Train

  • During administration, Denver was devastated by a Russian nuclear weapon concealed with hazardous chemicals and toxic waste on board a runaway freight train that has suffered from brake failure.
  • Played by: Edward Herrmann

Unnamed President in: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

  • Is threatened by Dr. Evil (Mike Myers); he must pay a ransom of $100 billion or a laser erected on the moon will destroy Earth
  • Briefly considers blowing up the moon in response, asking his advisors "Would you really miss it?"
  • Played by Tim Robbins
  • Takes place in 1969

Unnamed President in: "The Awakening", adapted from Howard Fast's "The General Zapped an Angel", on Masters of Science Fiction (ABC, 2007)

Unnamed President "Bobby" (no last name given) in: Being There

Unnamed President in: Canadian Bacon

  • An uninspiring president suffering from low popularity, he and his advisors started a fake cold war with Canada to rally American citizens and boost his approval ratings.
  • Played by: Alan Alda

Unnamed President in: City Beneath the Sea

Unnamed President in: Dreamscape

Unnamed President in: Earthworm Jim

  • A parody: Jim had gotten a chance to "meet the President" for his heroic deeds. Upon meeting him he exclaims "Hey! You're not the president!" The President responds "I'm one of those generic Presidents they put into TV shows to stop them from getting dated." Psy-Crow later crashed into the White House and made the same observation, receiving the same response from the President.

Unnamed President in: Escape from L.A.

  • Christian fundamentalist president who changes the Constitution to become president-for-life.
  • Played by: Cliff Robertson

Unnamed President in: Escape from New York

  • Crashlands in the Maximum Security prison of New York, and has to be rescued.
  • Played by: Donald Pleasence

Unnamed President in: Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Unnamed President in: Fail-Safe

Unnamed President in The Fifth Horseman, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, 1980.

  • Compelled to negotiate with Muammar Qaddafi over a nuclear weapon Qaddafi has hidden in New York City.
  • Depicted as having attributes of both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, the two real-world candidates for U.S. President the year the novel was written.

President "Harold" (no last name given) in: Guarding Tess (movie, Columbia/Tristar Studios; 1994)

  • Vice president under James Carlisle, another fictional chief executive, he succeeded to the presidency upon Carlisle's death in office sometime in the 1980s. He was still in power as of 1992. He is likely a native of Texas.
  • Quote: "Or next time, you'll be guardin' my dog, do you hear me son?"
  • Played by: Hugh Wilson

Unnamed President in: The Holy Land

  • Fundamentalist and entirely corrupt, considers alien "pagans" an abomination.

Unnamed President (Secret Service codename "Wrangler") in: The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger

Unnamed President in: I Am Legend

  • In December 2009, he gives a radio address declaring a military quarantine of New York City in an attempt to control the spread of KV.

Unnamed Presidents in: The Illuminatus! Trilogy

Unnamed President (Secret Service codename "Traveler") in: In the Line of Fire

  • Played by: Jim Curley

Unnamed President in The Island (2005)

  • Tom Everett as the President of America and his insurance policy in the movie.
  • Played by: Tom Everett

Unnamed President in: Love Actually

Unnamed President in: Medusa's Child

Unnamed President in: the Mr. Show episode "The Cry of a Hungry Baby"

Unnamed President in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

  • Studied architectural history at Yale University
  • Favorite President was Abraham Lincoln
  • Revealed the location of the President's Book, a list of all the nation's secrets compiled by all previous Presidents for the sole use of the President, to Benjamin Gates during his birthday party at Mount Vernon, and asked Gates to resolve an unnamed secret listed on page 47 of said book. Gates technically kidnapped him, but the President later told the Secret Service that they were exploring a tunnel when the door closed and Gates saved his life.
  • Played by: Bruce Greenwood

Unnamed President in: Pandora's Clock

  • During administration, Quantum Airlines flight 66 carries 247 passengers and one man infected with a doomsday virus from Frankfurt, Germany to New York, New York. The plane is unable to land and rogue elements within the government plans to shoot the it down.
  • Played by: Edward Herrmann

Unnamed President in: The Pelican Brief

  • A first term president, his re-election prospects are jeopardized by an attempted cover-up regarding two Supreme Court justices' assassinations.
  • Played by: Robert Culp

Unnamed President in: Perfect Dark

  • Was the victim of an assassination attempt aboard Air Force 1 by advisor Trent Easton and the Blonde Men, after repeatedly refusing to loan the science vessel Pelagic II to the Datadyne corporation. The attempt failed when he was rescued by Joanna Dark and the alien Elvis.
  • Was President during the human race's first contact with extraterrestrials, namely the peaceful Maians and warlike Skedar.
  • According to an in-game biography, was unfairly portrayed as "easily led" by political commentators.

Unnamed President in: The Puppet Masters

  • President in 2007 (decades in the future at the time of writing), unclear if this is his first or second term. Establishes a secret intelligence service under his personal control, authorised to act both inside the US and abroad, bypassing the CIA and FBI and unreported to Congress - constitutitionally highly questionable but it turns out to save the world from a vicious alien invasion. On one occasion the president's first name is given as "Tom", his family name never mentioned. In the 1994 film version he is "President Douglas", which is not attested in the original Heinlein book.
  • The book also makes a brief reference to "The Crisis of '96", when "The President-Elect was laid up with pneumonia and an actor delivered the inauguaral address in his place". No further details are given of that president.

Unnamed President in: The Rock

Unnamed President in: The Second Civil War (TV movie, 1997, dir: Joe Dante)

Unnamed President in: Shadow Conspiracy

  • His Vice President Saxon is trying to kill him and take his place.
  • Played by: Sam Waterston

Unnamed President "Prexy" in: The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner, 1972.

  • Genial idiot president in Brunner's dystopian SF novel.

Unnamed President in: Slapstick of Another Kind

  • Played by: Jim Backus
  • In the Kurt Vonnegut novel Slapstick on which the film is based, the President is named Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain. In the film Swain and the Unnamed President are separate characters.

Unnamed President in Species II

Unnamed President in the Spidey Super Stories short, "Spidey vs. the Funny Bunny", aired as part of the PBS children's television series, "The Electric Company."

  • Played by Melanie Henderson. Some sources indicate that Melanie may have been the first female African American actress to portray an American president on television.
  • The plot had a mischievous woman dressing in a rabbit costume and damaging Easter baskets by sitting on them. Spidey eventually foils the villain's plans to disrupt the annual White House Easter Egg roll.

Unnamed President in: Spock's World by Diane Duane.

  • By the early 23rd century, the office of President of the United States is merely a ceremonial post on the United Earth. Vulcan Ambassador Sarek makes the president laugh when he delivers a speech at a state dinner in a "flawless Texas accent."

Unnamed President in: The Stand by Stephen King.

  • Held in low regard by several characters in the book. He makes an address to try and allay fears of the Superflu, but during his speech, he exhibits early symptoms himself.

Unnamed President in: Stargate SG-1

  • The President was never onscreen, but an impostor played by Roger Allford appeared at the end of "Divide and Conquer".
  • The President of the United States was mostly unnamed throughout the series; not until season 7 was there a named President (Henry Hayes). Nevertheless, the idea of Robert Kinsey becoming President was a constant annoyance to Stargate Command during the tenure of Hayes' unnamed predecessor. This predecessor presumably started the Stargate Program, and signed Earth's first interstellar treaty, a pact with the Tok'ra.

Unnamed President in: Superman II

  • Forced to capitulate to the Kryptonian villains General Zod, Ursa and Non, who had been imprisoned in the Phantom Zone before they escaped. Restored to power after Superman defeats the Kryptonians.
  • Played by: E.G. Marshall

Unnamed "American President" in The Tomorrow People

  • Uses nuclear weapons to get involved in an intergalactic battle, distrusts the super-powered children and their secretive alien connections
  • Played by: John F. Parker

Unnamed President in Transformers (2007)

  • Requests Ding Dongs
  • A parody of President George W. Bush. In the IMAX cut, nine Presidents, from Hoover to Bush, are listed as having visited the headquarters of Sector Seven, a secret group "above the government" guarding a device called the Allspark, hinting that this President is meant to be Bush himself.

Unnamed President in Transmetropolitan

  • Notes: Nicknamed "The Beast", loses election to Gary Callahan

Unnamed President in The Unit

  • Sends the Unit to an unnamed Asian country to authenticate a pro-American rebel leaders request for support of a coup.
  • Played by: William H. Macy. First seen in episode 25, "The Broom Cupboard".

Unnamed President in Wag the Dog (1997)

  • Starts a fake war with Albania as a campaign distraction from a sex scandal before election time. He was running against Senator John Neal (Craig T. Nelson).
  • Played by: Michael Belson

Unnamed President in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

  • Responds to Magneto's acts of terrorism by ordering that a newly-developed mutant cure be incorporated into weapons.
  • Played by: Josef Sommer
  • In the novelization of the movie by Chris Claremont, the president is named Dave Cockrum, after the artist who worked on the series in the late 1970s.

Unnamed President in You Only Live Twice (1967)

  • Deals with the disappearances of U.S. and Soviet spacecrafts by SPECTRE, in hopes of starting a war. Places U.S. military on high alert, only to rescind the order after James Bond destroys the enemy spacecraft.
  • Played by: Alexander Knox

[edit] Real people with a fictional presidency

The following is a list of real or historical people who have been portrayed as President of the United States in fiction, although they did not hold the office in real life. This is done either as an alternate history scenario, or occasionally for humorous purposes. Also included are actual US Presidents with a fictional presidency at a different time and/or under different circumstances than the one in actual history.

[edit] A

Benedict Arnold takes charge of the American Revolutionary cause after the death of George Washington from pneumonia at Valley Forge and the disintegration of his army, in the story "Arnoldstown" by Mitchell Cummings. In a series of brilliant campaigns, Arnold snatches victory from the jaws of near-certain defeat and goes on to become the First President of the United States and its most revered Founding Father. The story's name is derived from the US capital in this timeline being "Arnoldstown, D.C.", with his name also being commemorated in the State of Arnoldia on the Pacific Northwest and numerous other placenames.

David Rice Atchison takes office when both Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore are killed in a carriage accident in the story "How the South Preserved the Union" by Ralph Roberts in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. In the story, New England secedes, then attempts to overthrow the Washington government. In the end, Atchison orders all slaves freed and armed, and the "Civil War" fails.

[edit] B

James G. Blaine is elected President in 1880 in the alternate history novel How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove. He is the only Republican President in that timeline except for Lincoln. Blaine gets the United States into a second war with the Confederate States.

Chastity Bono mentioned in The Simpsons episode "Bart to the Future" and was president sometime before Lisa Simpson.

William Jennings Bryan was elected in 1896 over William McKinley in the story "Plowshare" by Martha Soukup in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. He ends the Spanish-American War by granting full independence to Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and in 1915, prepares to oppose President Theodore Roosevelt's plan to take the US into World War I.

Aaron Burr becomes President by manipulating events in the 1800 election in the story "The War of '07" by Jayge Carr in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. He keeps promising to step down after one more term. Eventually, he becomes President for life, and dies leaving the office as an inheritance to his children and grandchildren, thus turning the United States into a de facto monarchy or family dictatorship.

Jeb Bush

  • Was president from 2001-2005 in From the Files of the Time Rangers, a mosaic novel by Richard Bowes. Presumably this is a fictionalized version of the actual son and brother of the historical presidents George Bush. Briefly mentioned several times in the novel, Jeb Bush has gotten into office as a result of election fraud engineered by his family in Texas. He is defeated by the fictional "Once and Future President" Timothy Garde Macauley.
  • In the independent feature film, "Duck", he is said to be the president of the United States, but is never seen, only referenced by way of the policies that his administration and Republicans in tow have enacted.

[edit] C

Dick Cheney

Chelsea Clinton

  • Is the President of the United States by 2049 on Zenon: Girl of the 21st century. She is never actually seen on screen. Chelsea would be 69 years old by the year this movie takes place.
  • Is the President of the United States in 2021 in the comic book series Liberality for all.

Hillary Clinton

George Clooney is a former president when Zack and Cody Martin go in a time when everything changes from the original life. He was depicted on the quarter in the alternate universe.

James M. Cox is elected President in 1920 after Warren G. Harding dies of a stroke in the story "A Fireside Chat" by Jack Nimersheim in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. In 1921, Cox is assassinated by an anti-League of Nations activist, leaving his Vice President, Franklin D. Roosevelt the new President.

Davy Crockett is elected in 1828 over Andrew Jackson in the story "Chickasaw Slave" by Judith Moffett in the Anthology Alternate Presidents.

Mario Cuomo is portrayed in the British comic 2000 AD (in the 1993 story Maniac 5) as vice president to President Al Gore, and succeeds to the presidency when Gore is killed by aliens during the Fourth World War. Cuomo is pressured by his advisers into taking drastic measures to win the war, against his better judgment, and shoots himself in remorse. His successor is seen but not named.

[edit] D

Thomas E. Dewey is the subject of two stories in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. In "No Other Choice" by Barbara Delaplace, Dewey defeats a seriously ill Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, and eventually decides to drop the Atomic Bomb on Tokyo rather than Hiroshima. "The More Things Change..." by Glen E. Cox tells the story of the 1948 election in reverse, with underdog Dewey eventually defeating the early overwhelming favorite, incumbent Harry S. Truman. In Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 Alternate History series, he is elected President in 1944 with Truman as his Vice President.

Stephen A. Douglas is elected in 1860 in the story "Lincoln's Charge" by Bill Fawcett in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. The Civil War occurs as in our time, and failed candidate Abraham Lincoln accepts a commission as a Union General.

Michael Dukakis wins in 1988 in the story "Dukakis and the Aliens" by Robert Sheckley in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. Dukakis is eventually revealed as an enemy alien, and "friendly" aliens have to adjust the timeline to ensure that George H. W. Bush is elected instead.

[edit] E

Thomas Edison is elected President in 1908 in the novel And Having Writ by Donald R. Bensen. In this book, the aliens whose ship crashed in the Tunguska event instead land safely. They create an effective hearing aid for Edison and cure the infirmities of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Czarevitch Alexei, the son of Czar Nicholas II. Edison is nominated by the Republicans over William Howard Taft and elected by a technology-enthusiased public. After pursuing the aliens and their companion, H. G. Wells, across Europe, he briefly tries to imprison them in order to obtain more of their secrets, but later relents. President Edison chooses not to run in 1912.

[edit] F

Harrison Ford

  • portrayed as the president in an episode in VIP
  • referred to as a former president in the film Scary Movie 3 when current president Baxter Harris "[wonders] what President Ford would have done", and then glances at Ford's portrait. Though this may not actually imply that Harrison Ford has served as the President himself, but rather to spoof his portrayal of a fictitious President in the 1997 film Air Force One.

Michael J. Fox is mentioned as a former president in the 1989 videogame Mean Streets. (In real life, Fox is ineligible for the presidency, as he was born in Canada.)

Al Franken was president in Why Not Me?, a satirical novel. Franken was elected in 2000, running on eliminating ATM fees. He was the first Jewish President and won in a landslide. Franken's running mate was Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, making the Franken-Lieberman ticket the first all-Jewish ticket since Reconstruction. As president, Franken suffered from severe depression and mood swings; he attacked Nelson Mandela and appointed Sandy Koufax as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. President Franken resigned after 144 days in office on June 10, 2001. In his resignation speech, he said: "It is my fondest wish that, in the fullness of time, the American people will look back on the Franken presidency as something of a mixed bag and not as a complete disaster."

Benjamin Franklin

  • Listed as a former President in the Doctor Who audio play Seasons of Fear. It is unclear whether this refers to him being President in the original Doctor Who time line or one of the fictional ones implied by the time corruption depicted in this story.
  • Selected as the first President over George Washington in the story "The Father of His Country" by Jody Lynn Nye in the Anthology Alternate Presidents.

[edit] G

President Albert Gallatin assumed office after the successful 1794 Whiskey Rebellion led to the overthrow and execution of George Washington in the book The Probability Broach. Gallatin reformed the system of government, severely limiting its powers, and his legacy eventually led to the formation of the North American Confederacy (In real life, Gallatin, who was Secretary of the Treasury for Thomas Jefferson, was ineligible to be President due to his birth in Switzerland).

Danny Giffen won the 2010 elections of the United States in the home-made religion "Danism" by author of the same name. He also appears as President in the short, amuter movie "Public Suicide" directed by Harrison Davis.

Barry Goldwater won the 1964 election in the story "Fellow Americans" by Eileen Gunn in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. The story also features Richard Nixon as a TV host and Robert Kennedy as the Governor of New York City.

Al Gore

  • Shown as the current president in an alternate reality in The One (2001) and in the comic book Hero Squared X-Tra Sized Special.
  • In The One, he is seen briefly in a news broadcast in an alternate universe.
  • The One was produced before the outcome of the 2000 Presidential Election was known. In keeping with the film's alternate-universe concept, the filmmakers used stock footage of Al Gore and George W. Bush to create a pair of similar mockup news broadcasts of each candidate as President. The eventual winner's version would be inserted into a scene in "our" universe, while the other would be shown in an alternate universe.
  • Was allowed to sit at the desk of the Oval Office on the set of The West Wing in a skit from Saturday Night Live making fun of the television show and depicting Gore, who had just lost the U.S. presidential election 2000, as overly eager to act the role of president on his visit to the television set.
  • The opening sketch of a 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live showed him addressing the nation, describing how his reversal of global warming led to encroaching glaciers, offering to bail out the oil companies because oil prices had dropped dramatically due to the popularity of alternative fuels, California had left the Union to become the nation of "Mexifornia", Major League Baseball Commissioner George W. Bush was doing his best to crack down on the use of steroids, Afghanistan was an extremely popular Spring Break destination, and a Six Flags theme park had been opened in Tehran
  • The television series SeaQuest DSV implies that Gore had become President sometime before 2032, as the show's namesake vessel was stationed at the nonexistent Fort Gore.
  • Is mentioned as the president in the webcomic The Spiders, focusing on an alternative American invasion of Afghanistan.
  • Mentioned as President in the episode "Meet the Quagmires" of Family Guy when Peter Griffin is allowed by Death to go back in time and ends up marrying Molly Ringwald instead of Lois Pewterschmidt thus allowing Glen Quagmire to marry her instead. Al Gore is President and enacts liberal policies beneficial to the country and has found and strangled Osama bin Laden on the set of MADtv. Brian Griffin uses this as an argument to prevent Peter from returning to the past to set things the way they were, but Peter insists on correcting the past.

[edit] H

President Harriman, mentioned in The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein, is presumably W. Averell Harriman. In reading an almanac from our universe, it's noted that Dwight D. Eisenhower served one of his terms in office (meaning he either served from 1949-1957 or 1957 - 1965).

Paris Hilton

J. Edgar Hoover

  • portrayed as President in the Red Dwarf episode "Tikka to Ride". When the Red Dwarf crew inadvertently prevented the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he was impeached in a sex scandal (with a mistress shared with Mafia boss Sam Giancana) in 1964. Hoover was forced to run for President by the Mafia, who blackmailed him with evidence that he was a cross-dresser. In return for unrestricted Mafia cocaine trafficking, Hoover allowed the Soviet Union to set up a nuclear base in Cuba, resulting in widespread panic, the abandonment of major American cities, the increasing likelihood of nuclear conflict and, in all likelihood, a Soviet victory in the Space Race due to a demoralized America. Hoover's presidency was erased when Kennedy assassinates himself in Dallas, 1963, restoring the timeline.
  • In the Sliders episode "Time Again and World", the group lands on a parallel Earth where America exists in a state of martial law. After the assassination of JFK, Hoover became president for more than 20 years (a lifelong term), implemented martial law and amended the Constitution, excising most of the Bill of Rights. In tribute to Hoover, all police officers wear skirts instead of pants. In that alternate dimension, the prison on Alcatraz Island is a fully-functioning penitentiary where the most dangerous political prisoners are kept, including civil-rights activists Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy as well as loud, out-spoken comedian Sam Kinison.
  • Another dictatorial Hoover, in Harry Turtledove's alternate history "Joe Steele", got to power earlier, in 1953 - having won a bloody power struggle following the death of his predecssor, President Joe Steele - an avatar of none other than Joseph Stalin, whose parents in this timeline emigrated to the US making him an American citizen (and eventually an American dictator). Hoover was the head of Steele's secret police, putting him in good position to become the next dictator-president, and proving even more brutal than Steele-Stalin (see ([1], [2])
  • He also was President in one of many alternate realities mentioned in Richard Bowes' From the Files of the Time Rangers (a mosaic novel by Richard Bowes). He is briefly mentioned as being President in the 1940s; how he became president or what happens to him is not revealed in the novel.

Cordell Hull became President upon the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Harry Turtledove alternate history novel Worldwar: Striking the Balance. Henry Wallace had been killed in a nuclear strike prior to Roosevelt's death.

[edit] I

Lee Iacocca - The movie World Gone Wild (1988) is set in 2087 where civilization collapsed after a nuclear war. In one scene of the movie, a character is looking at pre-war relects and finds a copy of Iacocca's autobiography. He mentions that Iacocca had been a great President.

[edit] J

Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson is the President in the "main" US timeline in the book The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith. In the book itself, he's only referred to as "President Jackson"; his identity is confirmed in the later sequel The Gallatin Divergence.

President Duane Johnson, who in reality is a staff member of the anime convention Otakon, appears in various fandub parodies.

[edit] K

Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was president in Fatherland, a novel by Robert Harris later made into a HBO movie. In the novel, Nazi Germany won World War II resulting in a far different world by April 1964. With tensions easing between the world's two major superpowers, a 75-year-old Adolf Hitler welcomes President Kennedy (elected in 1960) to a Berlin summit in the interest of fostering détente. Kennedy was believed by one of the main characters to be a shoo-in for re-election until the truth of the death camps is uncovered on the day of the summit. President Kennedy was played by Jan Kohout in the movie.

President Robert Kennedy (in one of the episodes What If?, program of Discovery Channel) won Democratic nomination in 1968 with Rev. Martin Luther King as his running mate. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon and George Wallace in the general election, but was shot to death in September 1969.

President Ted Kennedy

Martin Luther King (in one of the episodes What If?, program of Discovery Channel) was Vice President under Robert Kennedy and succeeded him in September 1969. Major of his initiatives are détente and continue program of Great Society (but under a new name). He was assassinated in 1971. He was succeeded by Vice President McGovern.

Wynton Kelly (in the German Tageschau for the Wende Gruppe Wiedervereinigungsfest) was President of the United States in the 70s of the 20th century, during a crisis between the US and the USSR around the "Herald des Freien Westens", a communication satellite. The secret services of both sides of the Iron Curtain claimed that the other side had stolen crucial parts of the satellite for military purposes. Kelly gave a broadcasted speech in which he warned the Soviet leaders to immediately deliver to stolen parts back to the US under threat of a nuclear attack. In return General Bravonov, the Soviet leader, warned the US to return their parts of the satellite. The broadcasted speech can be viewed on YouTube under the tag "Wiedervereinigungsfest".

[edit] L

President Charles M. La Follette is a Socialist who is sworn in as president in 1942 after incumbent Al Smith is killed by Confederate bombers in the novel Settling Accounts: Return Engagement.

Robert M. La Follette, Sr. won the 1924 election, but died the following year (as he did in real life) in the story "Fighting Bob" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch in the Anthology Alternate Presidents.

Fiorello H. La Guardia was elected president in 1951 in the 1939 Robert A. Heinlein novel For Us, the Living.

Rush Limbaugh portrays himself as President in The 1/2 Hour News Hour. Ann Coulter serves as his vice president.

President Charles Lindbergh appeared in The Plot Against America, an alternate history novel by Philip Roth.

  • Defeats President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940 election by playing upon the public's fears of going to war. Once in office, cancels defense-related agreements with the Allies, and signs non-aggression treaties with Hitler and with imperial Japan, which he justifies on the grounds that they will keep America out of war, and that the Axis are doing the world a favor by fighting and destroying communism in the Soviet Union and China. At home, he implements several programs designed to marginalize the Jewish community in the U.S.
  • He serves until 1942 when Vice President Burton K. Wheeler succeeds him.
  • At the end of the novel, it is revealed that Lindbergh was in the employ of the Nazis the entire time; years earlier, German agents had kidnapped Lindbergh's only son (see Lindbergh kidnapping) and used him as a hostage ever since to force Lindbergh to obey them. The treachery is discovered, Roosevelt is re-elected to the White House, and the U.S. enters the war on the Allied side.
  • Party: Republican.

Charles Lindbergh is President also in the 1973 alternate history The Ultimate Solution (1973) by Eric Norden. Unlike in Roth's book, he is not elected but made a puppet president by the Nazis after they conquer the US in the 1950s, on a par with the Norwegian Quisling, and remains at this job until 1973 when he - together with most of the world's population - is killed in a nuclear war between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

Belva Ann Lockwood defeated Benjamin Harrison in 1888 in the story "Love Our Lockwood" by Janet Kagan in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. She inspired both male and female suffragettes, and was the one to serve between the split terms of Grover Cleveland.

Huey Long defeats Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 in the story "Kingfish" by Barry N. Malzberg in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. He invites Adolf Hitler to visit America, and allows him to be assassinated via a bomb.

[edit] M

President Alfred Mahan

George Marshall is the President in 1962 in "Thor Meets Captain America" a 1987 novelette by David Brin.

President Joseph McCarthy is chosen as the Republican VP candidate by nominee Robert Taft in 1952 in Gregory Benford's story "We Could Do Worse" (1989). Taft chooses McCarthy with the tacit support of California Senator Richard Nixon, and when Taft dies in 1953, as in real life, McCarthy becomes president. By the 1956 elections, when the story takes place, he is well on his way to establishing a brutal dicatorship. The story indicates McCarthy would be reelected with Nixon as his running mate, using considerable voter intimidation, and by 1960 would "diddle" the Constitution to make his power permanent.

President George McGovern

  • (in one of the episodes What If?, program of Discovery Channel) was appointed Vice President after Martin Luther King took office from his assassinated predecessor Robert Kennedy. After King was shot too, McGovern became president in 1971.
  • He was also the subject of the novel President McGovern's First Term by Nicholas Max (1973).
  • In the anthology Alternate Presidents, two stories deal with McGovern winning the 1972 election. In "Suppose They Gave a Peace..." by Susan Shwartz, McGovern wins when the youth vote turns out for him in droves, and is then blamed for the debacle that occurs when he swiftly withdraws US troops from South Vietnam. In "Paper Trail" by Brian Thomsen, the tide turns for McGovern after reporter Carl Bernstein, investigating a break-in at the Watergate complex, is killed in a hit-and-run accident which is very qucikly linked to G. Gordon Liddy.
  • Though not actually specified, in the show Fairly Odd Parents, many refer to him as President McGovern who was elected in 1972. (when McGovern originally ran for president)

President McNamara -- presumably Robert S. NcNamara -- is president in Thomas M. Disch's 1968 science fiction novel, Camp Concentration.

Walter Mondale manages to defeat Ronald Reagan in 1984 in the story "Huddled Masses" by Lawrence Person in the Anthology Alternate Presidents.

[edit] N

President Ralph Nader played by Jimmy Fallon appeared in the Saturday Night Live skit A Glimpse of Our Possible Future III in 2000. Flying pigs and shivering devils featured.

Vice President Richard Nixon succeeded to the Presidency in June 1956, following the death of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from surgical complication. Becoming President as a relatively young man, only a few years removed from his active participation in the House Un-American Activities Committee and with his anti-Communist zeal untampered by the prgamatism he might have gained in later life, President Nixon embarked on a wild provocative and confrontational policy. This resulted by 1958 in a world-wide nuclear war, in which Nixon himelf was killed along with hundreds of millions of other people. The alternate history resulting from the long and painful rebuiling of the world was the subject of Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic League series.

Oliver North

[edit] P

President Patton, mentioned in The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein, is presumably General George S. Patton. In reading an almanac from our universe, it's noted that Dwight D. Eisenhower served one of his terms in office (meaning he either served from 1949-1957 or 1957 - 1965).

[edit] R

Nancy Reagan is President of the United States in one of alternate realities depicted in "The Coming of the Quantum Cats" by Frederik Pohl. She is considered a strong and assertive President, who successfully guides her version of the US through the major crisis of an invasion from a different timeline. Her husband Ronald, known as "The First Gentleman", is mostly disregarded.

Robert Redford is mentioned as running in the 1988 Presidential election at the end of the comic Watchmen.

President Keanu Reeves is mentioned in the Only Fools and Horses episode Heroes and Villains, although it turns out only to be a part of Rodney's nightmare. (In real life, Reeves is ineligible for the Presidency, as he is not a native-born citizen.)

President Thomas Reed is mentioned as being president in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series.

President Richard Russell Junior is mentioned as being president in Warlords of Utopia by Lance Parkin. The Dixiecrat President is shown as having kept the US out of World War II.

[edit] S

Arnold Schwarzenegger

  • mentioned as a prior commander in chief in Demolition Man with his own presidential library in San Angeles, California.
  • "President Schwarzenegger" was also mentioned in the Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf".
  • Depicted as president in the Simpsons Movie

Horatio Seymour

Upton Sinclair was elected in 1920 as the first Socialist president after defeating President Theodore Roosevelt in Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 saga. He was later succeeded by Calvin Coolidge, who was succeeded by Herbert Hoover, who lost re-election in 1936 to Al Smith.

Al Smith is elected president in Harry Turtledove's alternate history novel The Victorious Opposition in 1936 after defeating Herbert Hoover. He is the nation's third Socialist President and was later killed in an air raid on Philadelphia, the capital of the United States; Vice-President Charles M. La Follette was later sworn in as president.

President Bruce Springsteen appears in Jim Mortimore's novel: "Doctor Who: The New Adventures: Eternity Weeps" President Springsteen defeated President Tom Dering in the 2000 presidential election after retiring from the music business. President Springsteen ordered a nuclear attack on Turkey and the Moon in an attempt to stop the spread of an alien terraforming virus known as "Agent Yellow".

Harold Stassen was president in Colonization: Second Contact by Harry Turtledove. Set in the mid 1960's, re-elected Vice President easily. However, after Earl Warren commits suicide, he succeeds him.

Howard Stern is shown as the current president in Sliders episode 21, "The Young and the Relentless."

Adlai Stevenson is elected in 1952 after Dwight D. Eisenhower makes the mistake of accepting Joseph McCarthy as his running mate in the story "The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson" by David Gerrold in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. As the title implies, Stevenson is impeached (during his second term), and happily resigns. The Point of Departure has some similarities with Gregory Benford's "We Could Do Worse", where it is Robert Taft who is elected in 1952 and takes McCarthy as his running mate - and then dies in 1953, leaving McCarthy as a very dicatorial President (see under McCarthy above).

[edit] T

Robert Taft - in Gregory Benford's "We Could Do Worse" (1989), Taft is chosen as Republican candidate in 1952, winning over Eisenhower due to the support of Nixon, and takes Joseph McCarthy as his running mate. He is elected, dies in 1953 as in real life, and McCarthy becomes President and goes on to make himself a brutal dictator. (See entry for McCarthy above.)

Samuel J. Tilden is featured in two stories in the anthology Alternate Presidents. In "Patriot's Dream" by Tappan King, Tilden wins after a series of nightmares help convert him from a low-key corporate lawyer to a crusading reformer. In "I Shall Have a Flight to Glory" by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Tilden, still bruised by his loss to Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, adopts similar tactics against James Garfield in 1880. Tilden was also a one-term President (1877-1881) in How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove.

Donald Trump was mentioned as being president before Lisa Simpson in the year 2030. Trump was a very bad president and bankrupted the American economy, causing a crisis for Lisa when she took over. He was mentioned in the "Bart to the Future" episode of The Simpsons

[edit] V

President Arthur H. Vandenberg was president from 1941 to 1945 in the 1939 Robert A. Heinlein novel For Us, the Living.

Jesse Ventura

[edit] W

George Wallace

Earl Warren was president in Colonization: Second Contact by Harry Turtledove. Set in the mid 1960's, he is very popular and wins re-election easily. However, after ordering the nuclear destruction of Indianapolis to appease the Lizards after they learned the US had attacked their colony fleet in Earth orbit, Warren commits suicide and is succeed by vice president Harold Stassen.

Burton K. Wheeler succeeds Charles Lindbergh as president in 1942 in The Plot Against America, an alternate history novel by Philip Roth. Wheeler was also mentioned as having been elected President in The Divide, a 1980 novel by William Overgard - in this book, Wheeler's isolationist policies led to an Axis victory in World War II and the occupation of the United States.

Wendell Willkie was elected President in 1940 (when Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to not seek a third term) in the S. M. Stirling novel Marching Through Georgia. He led the United States into involvement in World War II

Oprah Winfrey

Victoria Woodhull is elected President after an amendment restricts Ulysses S. Grant to one term in the story "We are Not Amused" by Laura Resnick in the Anthology Alternate Presidents. In the story, Queen Victoria corresponds with the new female president, approvingly at first, but less so as her "libertine" ideas on social mores and customs take hold in the Empire.