Meet the US Presidents – VERY DIFFICULT

Only historians need apply to this trivia quiz of US Presidential history!  If you haveve already passed our Meet the US Presidents trivia, congratulations.  Now welcome to the big league!  We’ve taken a difficult trivia quiz and raised the bar – to expert level!Why?  Because there is just too much awesome trivia around the Presidents have just one quiz.  These are some interesting dudes, and it is also a pretty interesting job.  Is it the most highly paid job?  No.  As of 2020, the President makes $400,000 per year.  That may not actually be a lot for one of the most powerful people in the free world, but it also comes with some nice perks:

• Airforce One – the president’s personal aircraft
• Limousines – it’s pretty cool to have your own motorcade and drivers
• The White House – free housing in a sweet fully-funished mansion complete with a personal chef, staff and bowling alley
• Medical – I don’t mean just insurance.  I mean your own doctor and mini-hospital facility at your house
• Protection – full-time body guards and secret service personnel
• Pension – there aren’t many jobs that will pay you $219,200 per year (as of 2020) after just four years of service!  Oh yeah, insurance and 24/7 bodyguards for the rest of your life as well.

And US Presidents tend to have a fair bit of money coming in to the office, while their experience in office lends itself to book deals and public speaking engagements after holding office.  The founding fathers were all quite wealthy, since that was a time when politics didn’t pay.  Virtually all political positions, including the presidency, were on a volunteer basis.  Only the wealthy could afford to hold elected office, and while technically anyone could be elected., only wealthy men of European ancestry were allowed to vote.  Until Donald J Trump, the most wealthy president in the nation’s history was George Washington.

What is the net worth of modern Presidents?

Below is a table of the net worth of recent Presidents going back to 1950.

Just looking at this table reveals a couple of really interesting facts.  First, Lyndon B. Johnson was loaded and people forget that.  He was not a good student (he wasn’t initially allowed into college after high school), and he did not come from wealth.  But he married into a family with some money and prestige, and that catapulted him from politics into business.  It was not only his wife’s money but also her idea that he purchase a radio station in Austin, TX, and that was the beginning of the LBJ family fortune.

It’s also interesting to note that Harry S Truman was a man of little means, and historians believe he probably died with the lowest net worth of any modern president.  A very principled man, Truman did not believe that any president should sit on the boards of corporations, and to be in involved in any private business affairs was both a conflict of interest and unbefitting to the office of the presidency.  This was also before the days of a life-long presidential pension.  Truman and his wife returned to Independence, Missouri, where his only income was his $112 per month army pension.  They did encounter financial problems.  It is likely that Truman’s financial woes played a part in Congress passing a yearly pension to each past president in 1957.

Back to the perks though!  Being President isn’t all smiles and cameras.  Sadly, four US Presidents have been assinated while in office:  Abraham Lincoln, James A Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy.  Any other career with an 8.9% death rate while on the job would be among the deadliest in the world.  On top of that, both Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were shot while president, but thankfully, both made swift recoveries.  So before you apply to the presidency, think about that.

C’mon you patriot. Let’s see what you’re made of.  US Presidential trivia….difficult mode…..let’s go!