Article II of the Constitution creates the executive branch of the federal government. It vests “the executive Power” in a single President who serves a four-year term with a Vice President, and it then spells out who qualifies for the office, how that person is chosen, what powers the office carries, what duties come with it, and how a President can be removed.1Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article II The article builds an executive strong enough to enforce federal law, but shares nearly every major power with Congress or the courts.
Who Can Serve as President
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 sets three requirements. A President must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the country for at least 14 years. The Constitution does not define “natural-born citizen,” but legal commentators have generally understood it to mean someone who was a U.S. citizen at birth without needing to naturalize later.2Constitution Annotated. ArtII.S1.C5.1 Qualifications for the Presidency The Twelfth Amendment extends the same qualifications to the Vice President.3Congress.gov. Twelfth Amendment
The term is four years. The President’s salary is fixed by Congress and cannot be increased or decreased during the current term, and the President may not accept any other payment from the federal government or any state government while in office.4Congress.gov. Article II Section 1 Clause 7 That restriction, the Domestic Emoluments Clause, was meant to keep the President financially independent of the other branches and the states. The current salary is $400,000 per year.
Article II itself set no cap on how many terms a President could serve. Washington stepped down after two, and successors followed the custom until Franklin Roosevelt won four elections. The Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified in 1951, limits a person to two elected terms. Someone who has served more than two years of another President’s term can only be elected once on their own.5Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment
How the President Is Chosen
The framers did not create a direct popular vote. Article II sets up the Electoral College: each state chooses a slate of electors equal in number to its combined House and Senate delegation.6Constitution Annotated. Article II Section 1 Today that totals 538 electors across the states and the District of Columbia, and a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win.7National Archives. What is the Electoral College? Sitting members of Congress and people holding federal offices of trust or profit are barred from serving as electors, and each state legislature decides how its electors are appointed.
The original text told each elector to cast two undifferentiated votes; the top vote-getter became President and the runner-up became Vice President. That system produced a tie in 1800 and was replaced by the Twelfth Amendment in 1804. Electors now cast separate ballots for President and Vice President. If no presidential candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the House chooses from the top three, with each state delegation casting one vote and a majority of all states required to win. If no vice-presidential candidate wins a majority, the Senate picks from the top two.3Congress.gov. Twelfth Amendment
The Oath Before Taking Office
Before exercising any presidential power, the incoming President must recite an oath the Constitution quotes word for word: “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.”8Congress.gov. Article II Section 1 Clause 8 – Presidential Oath of Office The option to affirm rather than swear accommodates people whose religious beliefs prohibit oath-taking.
What the President Can Do
Section 2 is where the office gets its authority. It covers the military, criminal justice relief, foreign relations, and federal staffing, with checks written into almost every clause.
Commander in Chief
The President is Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy and of state militias when they are called into federal service.9Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution Article II Section 2 Civilian leadership sits at the top of the military chain of command. Article I, however, gives Congress the power to declare war and to fund the armed forces, so a sustained military campaign requires legislative cooperation.
Pardons and Reprieves
The President can grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, with one carve-out: impeachment cases cannot be pardoned.9Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution Article II Section 2 The Supreme Court has held that Congress cannot restrict this power. A pardon can forgive a crime entirely, reduce a sentence, or carry conditions, and it can be issued before charges are filed, as President Ford’s 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon showed. The clause reaches only federal offenses; state crimes are beyond it.
Treaties
The President negotiates treaties with foreign nations, but no treaty takes effect unless two-thirds of the Senators present vote to approve it.10Congress.gov. Article II Section 2 Clause 2 The high threshold lets a Senate minority block international commitments. Modern Presidents have increasingly used executive agreements, which are binding under international law but rest on different legal footing than ratified treaties.11United States Senate. About Treaties
Appointments
The President nominates ambassadors, federal judges (including Supreme Court justices), and all other principal officers of the United States, subject to Senate confirmation through the advice-and-consent process.10Congress.gov. Article II Section 2 Clause 2 Congress can pass laws letting the President, department heads, or courts appoint lower-ranking officials without a Senate vote.
Recess Appointments
When the Senate is in recess, the President can temporarily fill vacancies without confirmation. These commissions expire at the end of the Senate’s next session.12Congress.gov. Article II Section 2 Clause 3 The Supreme Court held in NLRB v. Noel Canning (2014) that the Senate is in session whenever it says it is, so long as it retains the capacity to conduct business, and that a recess shorter than ten days is presumptively too brief to trigger the clause.13Justia. NLRB v. Canning, 573 U.S. 513 (2014)
What the President Must Do
Section 3 shifts from powers to obligations.
State of the Union
The President must periodically report to Congress on the state of the union and recommend legislation the President considers necessary.14Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution Article II – Section 3 Duties For most of American history the report was written; the televised address before a joint session is a modern tradition, not a constitutional requirement. Congress has no obligation to act on the recommendations.
Receiving Ambassadors
The President receives ambassadors and other public ministers from foreign nations.14Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution Article II – Section 3 Duties Agreeing to receive a nation’s ambassador is how the United States formally recognizes that government, and refusal can sever diplomatic relations. The clause makes the President the gatekeeper for U.S. recognition of foreign governments.
Convening and Adjourning Congress
On extraordinary occasions the President may call one or both chambers of Congress into special session. If the two chambers disagree about when to adjourn, the President can settle the dispute by adjourning them.15Congress.gov. The President’s Legislative Role No President has ever exercised the adjournment power.
The Take Care Clause
The most consequential duty is the shortest: the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”14Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution Article II – Section 3 Duties The clause anchors federal enforcement. It means the President cannot simply ignore laws passed by Congress, and it is the primary legal foundation for executive orders directing federal agencies on how to carry out statutes. The duty cuts both ways: it empowers the President to supervise the executive branch and constrains the President from acting beyond what the law authorizes.16Legal Information Institute. Overview of the Take Care Clause
When a President Can’t Continue
Article II originally said only that the powers of the office would “devolve on the Vice President” if a President died, resigned, or became unable to serve. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, ratified in 1967, filled in the details. If the presidency becomes vacant, the Vice President becomes President. If the vice presidency itself is vacant, the President nominates a new Vice President, subject to majority confirmation in both chambers of Congress. Beyond the Vice President, the Presidential Succession Act sets a line running through the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and cabinet secretaries in the order their departments were created.17USAGov. Order of Presidential Succession
The amendment also handles temporary inability. Under Section 3, a President who anticipates being unable to serve, such as during surgery, can voluntarily transfer power to the Vice President by notifying congressional leaders in writing.18Cornell Law Institute. 25th Amendment Section 4 covers the harder case. If the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet (or another body Congress designates) declare in writing that the President is unable to discharge the duties of office, the Vice President immediately serves as Acting President. The President can reclaim power by declaring the inability has ended, but the Vice President and cabinet can challenge that declaration within four days. Congress then has 21 days to decide, and a two-thirds vote of both chambers is needed to keep the Vice President in charge.19Congress.gov. Overview of Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Presidential Vacancy and Inability Section 4 has never been invoked.
Removal from Office
Article II, Section 4 states that the President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States can be removed from office upon impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.20Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution Article II Section 4 – Impeachment The mechanics live in Article I. The House impeaches by simple majority. The Senate conducts the trial, and conviction requires a two-thirds vote of the Senators present.21United States Senate. About Impeachment
“High crimes and misdemeanors” is deliberately open-ended and does not require a violation of criminal law. The framers borrowed the phrase from English parliamentary practice, where it covered serious abuses of official power and breaches of public trust. Congress has treated it as a political judgment about whether conduct is serious enough to warrant removal.
The Constitution does not define “civil officers,” but historical practice has established that the category includes federal judges and heads of executive departments. Federal judges have been impeached more often than any other kind of official. Whether lower-ranking “inferior officers” can be impeached has never been tested.22Congress.gov. ArtII.S4.2 Offices Eligible for Impeachment Members of Congress are not considered civil officers for impeachment; each chamber has its own power to expel its members.