John Tyler (jr)

John Tyler was the original “how did this guy end up in charge?” president. He slid into the White House not on a wave of popular support but because fate (and pneumonia) cleared the path. A states’ rights purist with a serious gold fixation and an instinctive distrust of banks, Tyler was basically the Whig Party’s emotional support problem. He was technically their guy, but only in the way a cat technically lives in your house, there on paper, utterly uncooperative in practice.

Once in power, Tyler quickly made it clear he was not about to be anyone’s party puppet. He vetoed Whig bills, torched alliances, and left a trail of political wig-flipping chaos in his wake. By the end of his accidental presidency, the Whigs had booted him from the party, Congress was over him, and America was left with a man who’d redefined “presidential drama” before reality TV was even a thing.