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Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, on Inauguration Day, 1933.
HARD NUMBERS: Term limits, Day fit for a King and a president, Benefits of brevity, Presidential addresses clarified
22: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only American president to be inaugurated four times, serving from 1933 to 1945. In 1951, the United States Congress ratified the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting future presidents to a maximum of two terms in office.
2: For only the second time in history, Inauguration Day coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. day, a federal holiday that honors the slain civil rights leader on the third Monday of January. Many liberal and progressive groups have pledged to focus on traditional days of service to mark the King holiday rather than inauguration day itself, while some protest marches against Trump are expected as well.
8,445: The longest inaugural address in US history was delivered by William Henry Harrison, whose speech ran to 8,445 words. After speaking for nearly two hours without a coat or hat on a wet and chilly Washington day in January 1841, Harrison fell ill, developed pneumonia, and died a month later. The shortest inaugural was George Washington’s second, which ran to just 135 words, half the length of this Hard Numbers section.
40: Trump is the 47th president, but how many have given inaugural addresses? Only 40, as it turns out. Four US presidents were actually vice presidents who ascended to office due to death or assassination and never won an election of their own, so they didn’t get the chance to give an inaugural address. Two US presidents have been counted twice because they served nonconsecutive terms – Grover Cleveland was the first, and Donald Trump is the second.
US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., on March 7, 2024.
Rowdy SOTU sets the tone for 2024
With both parties’ nominees locked in, Thursday’s State of the Union played more like a campaign-rally-cum-stand-up-comedy — complete with crowd work and hecklers.
President Joe Biden took advantage of the bully pulpit to highlight his administration’s successes and contrast them disfavorably with those of his predecessor on everything from economic performance to foreign policy. He did so without once using Donald Trump’s name.
Biden opened by urging Congress to pass weapons aid to Ukraine, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop there if Kyiv’s defenses falter. He also called out Trump for saying he would let Moscow “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that don’t meet spending commitments. His message to Putin was simple: “We will not walk away. We will not bow down.”
On the more politically sensitive subject of Gaza, Biden defended Israel’s right to go after Hamas while decrying the humanitarian nightmare that is unfolding there. He announced the construction of a temporary pier in Gaza overseen by the US military that may be able to increase the amount of food entering the enclave amid rising starvation. He promised, however, that there would be no US boots on the ground.
On the domestic front, Biden played to women and middle-class workers, key elements of the electoral coalition he hopes will deliver him a second term in November. He promised to reinstate a constitutional right to abortion and crack down on domestic violence, telling Republicans they had “no clue” about the power of women.
He gave Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, a shout-out for leading a successful strike last year and pointed to his own union bona fides and record of reviving the US auto industry. Biden will be relying on union voters to secure swing states in the upper Midwest like Michigan and Wisconsin that pushed him over the line against Trump in 2020.
Biden was under pressure to demonstrate vigor. Barring a few gaffes, he gave a strong performance, says Clayton Allen, Eurasia Group’s director for the United States, but one good night may not be enough.
“A strong delivery won’t substantially change the fact that 73% of voters still see him as too old, and he has to perform nearly flawlessly over the next 8 and a half months to keep age concerns at bay,” he says.
As has become the pattern in recent years, some Republicans in the audience shouted at the president during the speech – and on occasion, the president shouted right back.
“Spirited back and forth exchanges with Republicans in the audience — what would have been headline-grabbing breaks of protocol a decade ago — tonight were just more confirmation that the US is headed into a bare-knuckle fight of a campaign,” says Allen.