<Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The President of the United States is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States . The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander - in - chief of the United States Armed Forces . The president is indirectly elected to a four - year term by the people through the Electoral College . </P> <P> Since the office was established in 1789, 44 people, all men, have served as president . The first, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College . Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms in office, and is counted as the nation's 22nd and 24th presidents; the incumbent, Donald Trump, is therefore the 45th president . There are currently five living former presidents . The most recent death of a former president was on December 26, 2006 with the death of Gerald Ford; the most recently serving president to die was Ronald Reagan on June 5, 2004 . </P> <P> William Henry Harrison spent the shortest time in office, dying 31 days after taking office in 1841 . Franklin D. Roosevelt served the longest, over twelve years, before dying early in his fourth term in 1945; he is the only president to have served more than two terms . Since the ratification of the Twenty - second Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1951, no person may be elected president more than twice, and no one who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected may be elected more than once . </P>

How many presidents of the united states has there been