Grover Cleveland served two terms as U.S. President, but the terms were not consecutive.
By HENRY KAMER
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump was elected as the 47th president of the U.S. on November 5th, 2024. He was also the 45th president, serving from 2017 to 2021. Huh, that seems rare. As unique as Trump is, he is not the first but the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms. The holder of that record is Grover Cleveland.
Grover Cleveland served as the first Democrat elected after the Civil War, being the 22nd and 24th president, or 1885-1889 and 1893-1897. Cleveland and Trump share a few similarities and some important differences.
Both were leaders in New York City. Both had accusations of rape brought up against them, and both attacked those accusations. Trump was formally indicted of this crime, while Cleveland went on to support the child that came as a result. The ugliness of the two cases wasn’t enough to dissuade voters. Both Trump and Cleveland used executive privilege to refuse to hand over department files to Congress.
Trump and Cleveland also bring their own features to the table. Trump became the first president to be elected with felonies and a criminal record, while Cleveland became the first president to be married in the White House.
Cleveland loved drinking beer so much that he had eight a day, while Trump loves downing Diet Coke. Maybe if Cleveland was around today, he would like Diet Coke too.
Trump made four attempts for the presidency compared to Cleveland’s three (many have forgotten about the 2000 campaign of Trump as the candidate of the Reform Party). Trump lost the popular vote three times. In 2016, he lost the popular vote but took the Electoral College over Hillary Clinton. He lost both in 2020, and finally won both last Tuesday. Cleveland, on the other hand, won the popular vote in all three of his elections, but lost the Electoral College in 1888 to Benjamin Harrison, before winning in a rematch in 1892.
Cleveland was a frugal Democrat, disliked by the working class. Cleveland was anti-tariff, while Trump is a Republican who is pro-tariff.
It’s important to remember that these parties actually switched. The Democrats at the time of the Civil War were more like what the Republican Party is today. When Cleveland campaigned for his re-election in 1888, he faced moderate Republican Benjamin Harrison.
Harrison was a descendant of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president who was able to accomplish a gargantuan load of feats through his shockingly long month-long presidency before an untimely death.
Cleveland lost to Harrison, even though Cleveland won the popular vote. This was actually one of five elections in which the popular vote winner lost (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, 2016). Cleveland came back in 1892 and defeated Harrison by campaigning on his opposition to the country’s tilt towards the silver over gold standard. Just imagine if Cleveland discovered Crypto and Apple Pay. Oh boy.
Historians agree that Grover Cleveland was not a great president. We’ll just have to wait and see what historians say about Donald Trump.
Donald Trump was just voted to his second (nonconsecutive) term as President.
You don’t have to wait