Personal ethics & conduct in office

Personally clean. No personal-conduct scandals. Modest. Strong family/marriage role-modeling.

Era-defining personal ethics. Most ethically rigorous presidency since Eisenhower. 'I will never lie to you' commitment substantially kept.

Clean personal record. Famously refused tax benefits available to him. Military-statesman bearing.

Personally clean. Restrained patrician style. No personal scandals.

Personally clean. Modest finances. Most honest presidency since Eisenhower per contemporary assessment.

Famously clean personally. 'The buck stops here' desk motto. Modest family finances. No personal financial scandals.

No major personal corruption. Lucy Mercer relationship was personal not financial. Generally maintained pre-modern conduct standards.

Reporting characterized Biden's personal conduct in office as broadly clean of self-dealing. The Hur Report (Special Counsel report, February 2024) concluded that Biden 'willfully retained and disclosed' classified materials but declined to recommend prosecution; the report's stated reasons referenced juror perception of the case (the report described Biden as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory'). The administration disputed the report's framing. The Hunter Biden pardon (Proclamation 10874, December 1, 2024) was widely characterized as inconsistent with earlier public statements that no pardon would be issued.

Personally clean. 'I don't recall' Iran-Contra defense raised questions about either honesty or cognitive state. No personal financial impropriety identified.

Personally clean. Earnest faith framework. Some honesty issues in Iraq communication.

Multiple extramarital affairs in office (Marilyn Monroe, Judith Exner among others). Exner relationship overlapped with Mafia connections. Concealment maintained dignity publicly.

Bobby Baker (LBJ Senate aide) financial scandals during LBJ Senate tenure continued investigation in office. Some personal financial irregularities. Crude personal conduct documented in tapes.

Lewinsky affair, multiple sexual harassment allegations (Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick). Whitewater investigation. Marc Rich pardon (last day). Major personal-ethics issues.

Trump entered the second term as the first US president to take office following a felony conviction (People v. Trump, N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 30, 2024 — 34 counts of falsifying business records; on appeal as of the scoring date). The Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. ___ (2024), set out an immunity framework for official acts that has shaped subsequent litigation. Separately, ethics watchdogs including CREW and POGO raised conflict-of-interest concerns regarding the Trump Organization's continued operations and cryptocurrency-related ventures (including the $TRUMP and Melania Trump meme coins); these characterizations are contested by the administration.

Personally directed Watergate cover-up. Smoking Gun tape (June 23, 1972) showed direct personal obstruction of justice. Resigned August 9, 1974 facing certain impeachment. Pardoned by Ford September 1974.

On May 30, 2024, a New York jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records (the first felony conviction of a US president); the conviction is on appeal as of the scoring date. Separately, Trump was indicted federally on classified-documents and January 6-related charges and in Georgia on election-interference charges; the two federal cases were subsequently dismissed following the 2024 election, and the Georgia case remains pending in state court. Civil findings include the Carroll defamation verdicts noted at sub-criterion 3.2 and the New York Attorney General's civil fraud judgment. Numerous unadjudicated allegations of sexual misconduct, conflicts arising from continued Trump Organization business activity, and emoluments concerns were the subject of ongoing reporting and litigation.