Article II vests the executive power in a single President, elected to a four-year term through the Electoral College. It sets the qualifications for the office, the oath, and the core powers: commander in chief of the military, pardons, treaties and appointments (both shared with the Senate), and the duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." Its original election machinery broke almost immediately and was rebuilt by the Twelfth Amendment; succession and disability were clarified by the Twentieth and Twenty-Fifth.
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
One President, four-year terms, chosen by electors that each state appoints however its legislature directs, there is still no constitutional right to vote for President directly; every state has simply chosen popular election. The original system had electors cast two undifferentiated votes, with the runner-up becoming Vice President; after the deadlocked election of 1800 the Twelfth Amendment split the ballots for President and Vice President. A President must be a natural-born citizen, at least 35, and 14 years a U.S. resident. The President's salary cannot be changed during a term. Congress can neither bribe nor punish a sitting President through pay. Term limits came later, in the Twenty-Second Amendment; succession and disability were spelled out by the Twenty-Fifth.
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
The President commands the military (though only Congress can declare war or fund it), may demand written opinions from department heads, the constitutional seed of the cabinet, and can pardon federal offenses, except in cases of impeachment. The biggest powers are shared: treaties need two-thirds of the Senate, and Supreme Court justices, ambassadors, and the principal officers who run federal agencies all require Senate confirmation. Congress may let "inferior officers" be appointed without confirmation, and recess appointments let a President fill vacancies temporarily while the Senate is away.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
The duties clause: report to Congress on the state of the union (the origin of the annual address), recommend legislation, receive foreign ambassadors (which in practice means deciding which governments the U.S. recognizes), and, the heart of the section, take care that the laws are faithfully executed. Executive orders, agency rules, and the regulatory actions in this app's feed all rest on this duty to carry out laws Congress has passed; the clause is a duty to execute the law, not a license to make it.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Any civil federal officer, President, Vice President, judges, cabinet secretaries, is removed from office if the House impeaches (accuses) and the Senate convicts. The grounds are treason, bribery, or "other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," a deliberately weighty phrase for serious abuses of office; it has never been read as limited to ordinary crimes.
