Even so, some cursory research reveals that he faces some tough competition from his predecessors in the White House:
- Prior to becoming president, Andrew Jackson fought a dozen duels, usually over perceived offenses to his wife. He killed one opponent. After entering the White House, he became the first president to be targeted for assassination. The would-be assassin's guns failed to fire (yes, both of them), after which Jackson personally beat the guy half to death with his cane. It's said that Jackson not only used foul language but taught it to a parrot as well.
- Zachary Taylor reportedly spit tobacco juice on the WHite House carpets if no spitoon was handy.
- When Thomas Jefferson was forty-three, he crippled his right hand jumping over a fence while out strolling with the married twenty-seven-year-old Maria Cosway, with whom he was having an affair. And that was not his only documented affair.
- Lyndon Johnson was very well-endowed and reportedly was not averse to proudly proving it now and then, including displaying his manhood to unsuspecting female journalists. He was also known for his salty conversation and crude metaphors. And those of us old enough will never forget the time he displayed his surgery incision to the press corps.
- Although revered now as a martyred president, Jack Kennedy was also one of the most sexually active presidents of all time. Skinny dipping in the White House pool with "Fiddle" and "Faddle," as well as documented and rumored (Marilyn Monroe) affairs are as emblematic of his brief presidency as are the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile crisis.
So Trump has his work cut out for him. Sadly, I think he is up to the challenge.
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