Presidential History Geeks

After realizing that his first choice for Attorney-General would likely not get confirmed by the Senate, President-Elect Donald Trump has put forth another name as his choice for US Attorney-General, someone with actual experience as an Attorney-General. Pamela Jo Bond is an attorney, lobbyist, and a Republican politician who served as Florida's attorney-general from 2011 to 2019, the first woman elected to that office. In 2020, she was one of President Trump's defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial and in 2024 she  led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. On November 21, 2024, Trump announced she would be nominated for US Attorney-General after previous nominee Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from nomination.

Bondi was born on November 17, 1965 in Temple Terrace, Florida. Her father was Joseph Bondi who was then Mayor of Temple Terrace. In 1987 Bondi received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Florida, majoring in criminal justice. She received her J.D, from Stetson University College of Law in 1990 and was admitted to the Florida Bar on June 24, 1991. Early career

Bondi was a prosecutor as well as a media spokeswoman in Hillbsborough County in Florida, where she served as an assistant state attorney. Bondi prosecuted former Major League Baseball player Dwight Gooden in 2006 for violating the terms of his probation and in 2007, Bondi she prosecuted the defendants in the death of Martin Anderson. 

Martin Van Buren was the last person, prior to the late George H. W. Bush, to serve as Vice-President under a two-term President and then win election to the presidency himself. (Joe Biden did not immediately run for President at the end of the term of the President he served under.) Like the first President Bush, Van Buren was also a one-term president and lost his bid for re-election.

Martin Van Buren was the 8th President of the United States and today is his birthday. Van Buren, also known as "the Little Magician" for his political prowess, was born on December 5, 1782 (242 years ago today) in the village of Kinderhook, New York. His father Abraham Van Buren was a farmer and a tavern keeper who was also the owner of six enslaved persons. Although he would serve as Vice President in the administration of one of the most staunch defenders of the institution of slavery (Andrew Jackson), Little Van would later break with his party on that issue.

One of the less likely of President-Elect Trump's cabinet picks to be confirmed is his choice for Secretary of Defense: Pete Hegseth. Since the name has been announced, a number of objections have been raised to Hegseth's selection, including allegations of sexual assault.

Hegseth was born on June 6, 1980, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father Brian Hegseth was a basketball coach, and his mother is Penny Hegseth. He attended Forest Lake Area High School, where he played football and basketball, graduating in 1999 as class valedictorian.  He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Princeton University in 2003. He also played basketball for the Princeton Tigers. In 2013, he received a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

It is said that the money markets breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that President-elect Donald Trump named hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to serve as his new Treasury secretary. Bessent, who is 62 years old, is the founder of the investment firm Key Square Capital Management. In his new role, he will be expected to undertake an economic agenda expected to be built around cutting taxes and imposing tariffs.

President Trump himself had high praise for his choice of Bessent, stating “Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists. He will help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States, as we fortify our position as the world’s leading economy, he  will help reinvigorate the private sector, and help curb the unsustainable path of federal debt.”

The Secretary of the Treasury Department has broad oversight of tax policy, public debt, international finance and sanctions.

Bessent was a partner at Soros Fund Management and was the founder of Key Square Group, a global macro investment firm. He has been a major fundraiser and donor for President Trump and was an economic advisor for the Trump 2024 campaign. If confirmed, Bessent will be the second openly gay Cabinet secretary in U.S. history and the third overall openly gay cabinet level official. 

Last month, President-Elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Marco Rubio as the United States Secretary of State in his new administration. Rubio is expected to be one of the easier nominations for Trump to get confirmation of and if appointed, Rubio would be the first Floridian as well as the first Latino to serve in the position of US Secretary of State and he would also be the highest-ranking Hispanic-American government official in US history.

Little has been written about the Presidential election of 1812, which is surprising, since it was the nation's first such contest to occur during wartime. President James Madison, walking contradiction politically, had recently asked Congress for a declaration of war against the greatest military nation in the world, and the war wasn't starting off very well. Madison had once been a staunch Federalist who had aided George Washington in a number of Presidential precedent-setting tasks, before changing teams to join Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican party. But now Madison was beginning to see the benefits of a strong central government as he realized that his nation may have not been as ready for a fight with the mighty British Empire as he had hoped.

It seems fitting that this series on Presidential Transition should end with the first transition, and the one that followed the first contested election. By 1796 George Washington had served two terms in office. During the Revolutionary War, Washington served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and had presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution. He established the national and lasting model of the military being subject to civilian authorities, something that was amazing for its time, and something that remains a fundamental tenet of democracy today. He became known as the "father of his country" during his lifetime and it is a title that he retains to this day.

The 2020 Presidential election was held on November 3, 2020. Incumbent President Donald Trump lost his bid for re-election to the Democratic party ticket of former Vice-President Joe Biden and California Senator Kamala Harris. The election took place during the global COVID-19 pandemic, which had resulted in an economic recession. Perhaps because of the widespread availability of mail-in voting, the election saw the highest voter turnout percentage since 1900. Biden received over 81 million votes, a record that still stands for votes received by a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.

Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, became the first African-American, first Asian-American, and third female vice presidential nominee on a major party ticket. Trump secured re-nomination, getting a total of 2,549 delegates, one of the most in presidential primary history. Major issues of the election included the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on public health, as well as the economic effects of the pandemic. The nation was also experiencing civil unrest as the result of the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, and a vacancy on the US Supreme Court following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg that was filled by Amy Coney Barrett. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. This is a holiday in which many Presidents have been a part of, from Washington to Biden. In fact even before there was the office of President of the United States, there was Thanksgiving. During the American Revolutionary War the Continental Congress appointed one or more thanksgiving days each year, recommending the observance of these days in each of the states. The First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was given by the Continental Congress in 1777 from its temporary location in York, Pennsylvania, while the British occupied the national capital at Philadelphia. George Washington, then the leader of the revolutionary forces in the American Revolutionary War, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga.

Franklin Pierce had the distinction of being the only incumbent to be elected president who wanted to seek a second term in office, but who did not win his party's nomination for one. Some presidents came into office promising to hold the office for only one term. Others had become president upon the death of the elected president and were denied their party's nomination in the second term. But Franklin Pierce won election to the office in 1852 and he fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats in 1856. But it was not to be.