There is a Prime Minister of the United States, but nonetheless, the term "Prime Minister" has sometimes been applied, either as a pejorative term, a bon mot or through ignorance, to an official within the government of the United States. The letter A is the first (1st) letter in the Latin alphabet. ... A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of... A word or phrase is pejorative or derogatory (sometimes misspelled perjorative) if it expresses contempt or disapproval; dyslogistic (noun: dyslogism) is used synonymously (antonyms: meliorative, eulogistic, noun eulogism). ...

During and after the American Revolutionary War, many Americans saw government as deceitful and untrustworthy. The British political system, especially, was considered tyrannical. The men around the King, namely the prime minister, through corruption, had achieved complete control. It was also generally believed that the men around the King utilized the British financial system to destroy its once balanced political system. When, under the Washington administration, Alexander Hamilton established the Bank of the United States, Hamilton met fierce opposition. The National Gazette said Hamilton was working as a prime minister, and alleged that his manipulation of the financial system would lead to the downfall of the republic. The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a war fought primarily between Great Britain and revolutionaries within thirteen British colonies in North America. ... George III (George William Frederick) (June 4, 1738 – January 29, 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from October 25, 1760 until January 1, 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ... George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was an American planter, political figure, the highest ranking military leader in U.S. history and first President of the United States. ... A portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1792. ... The First Bank of the United States was proposed by Alexander Hamilton to relieve the war debt from the United States Revolutionary War, develop a national currency, and dispose of the western territories. ...

Today, the term is applied by people unfamiliar with the American presidential system of government, who presume that the chief executive official (the President of the United States) is instead called the prime minister (e.g. "Prime Minister Clinton"). People accustomed to parliamentary systems where the duties of the head of state and head of government are separated sometimes fail to realize that the President of the United States performs both these functions. A presidential system, or a congressional system, is a system of government of a republic where the executive branch is elected separately from the legislative. ... The President of the United States (often abbreviated POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of... The Parliamentary system refers to one of three legislative systems that exist in the world today. ... The President of the Philippines meets with the President of the United States. ... The head of government is the leader of the government or cabinet. ...

The sobriquet "Prime Minister" has in some instances been applied to American political officials who appear to be exercising substantial executive power. The term generally has more to do with the notion of perceived power, rather than legal or constitutional power.

The nickname of "Prime Minister" is thus sometimes used by pundits, political insiders, or journalists as a critical, satirical, or observational title, and not an attempt at a formal government definition. Often the title of US Prime Minister is used to allude a sort of 18th century grand vizier-type Prime Minister, that is to say one who is a power behind the throne or influential advisor, as opposed to a modern-style elected Prime Minister in a parliamentary government. A Vizier (وزير, sometimes also spelled Wazir) is an Arabic term for a high-ranking religious and political advisor, often to a king or sultan. ... The phrase power behind the throne refers to a person or group that informally exercises the real power of an office. ...

Some offices whose occupants have occasionally been suggested as being "America's Prime Minister" include:

• In Vol. CI (101), 1977 of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Fred S. Rolater equates Charles Thomson as a sort of "Prime Minister" of the United States. Thomson served as the secretary of the Continental Congress with commitment and diligence for its entirety (1774 to 1789).

• The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives - The Speaker of the House is ceremonially the highest ranking legislative official elected directly by members of Congress. Since the Speaker and the President are often from different parties, this can sometimes lead to cohabitation situations in which the two are at odds with each other. The Speaker (and the majority leader of Senate if the Senate is also controlled by the opposition) can thus come to be seen as the leaders of the "opposition" and the symbol of their party, and the very personification of partisan opposition to the President's agenda. The Speaker of the House is also a much more politically active figure than many of his counterparts in other countries, and though he has little formal power, throughout American history the speakership has evolved into one of the nation's key political positions.

In the late 19th century, in particular following the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and the damage that was perceived to have done to the American presidency (already shaken by the assassination of his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln), it was speculated by academics, foreign diplomats based in Washington, D.C. and even by leading members of the Senate that the United States would evolve from a presidential to a parliamentary system of government, with the Speaker becoming a de facto prime minister, sidelining the President of the United States. The President would in turn evolve into a form of nominal chief executive head of state, in whom legal executive authority would continue to be nominally vested but whose role as policy-maker and head of government would in effect move to the Speaker.

• The White House Chief of Staff - As the president's top aide, the Chief of Staff is often one of the closest personal policy advisors to the President. He is also frequently the official who manages much of the day to day functioning of the White House, including, as the title suggests, control over much of the staff. How much direct executive power the Chief of Staff exercises is very much dependent on how "hands off" or "hands on" the President is in mundane political matters.

Powerful Chiefs of Staff have included Reagan Chief of Staff Donald Regan and Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig. Howard Baker, Reagan's last Chief of Staff, had great distaste for what he perceived to be a pseudo-royal power balance in the White House, and denounced the idea of a Chief of Staff Prime Minister as a symptom of what he deemed to be an increasingly "Imperial Presidency." See also Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s book, The Imperial Presidency.

• During the 19th century, the United States Secretary of State, as the highest ranking member of the Cabinet, was occasionally called the "Prime Minister", especially by Europeans. For instance, Alexis de Tocqueville's travelling-companion Gustave de Beaumont referred to then Secretary of State Edward Livingston as the "Prime Minister of the United States"

For the Stuckist artist, see Charles Thomson (artist). ... The Continental Congress was the legislature of the Thirteen Colonies and later of the United States from 1774 to 1789, a period that included the American Revolutionary War and the Articles of Confederation. ... 1774 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Representative Dennis Hastert of Illinois is currently the Speaker of the House of Representatives. ... The United States order of precedence is a nominal and symbolic hierarchy of important positions within the government of the United States. ... The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ... Cohabitation in government occurs in France when the President and the Prime Minister come from different political parties. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... A political party is a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. ... Depiction of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, then President of the United States, in 1868. ... Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the sixteenth Vice President (1865) and the seventeenth President of the United States (1865–1869), succeeding to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. ... Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), sometimes called Abe Lincoln and nicknamed Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, and the Great Emancipator, was the 16th President of the United States (1861 to 1865), and the first president from the Republican Party. ... The White House Chief of Staff is the highest-ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and a senior aide to the President. ... The southern side of the White House The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. ... Ronald Wilson Reagan, (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ... Donald Regan Donald Thomas Regan (December 21, 1918 – June 10, 2003) was the 66th United States Secretary of the Treasury, from 1981 to 1985, and Chief of Staff from 1985 to 1987 in the Reagan administration, where he advocated supply-side economics and tax cuts to create jobs and stimulate... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Alexander Haig Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. ... Howard Baker, Jr. ... The Imperial Presidency is a term which has been used from the 1960s to describe the presidency of the United States and the Presidents aides. ... Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. ... The Seal of the United States Department of State The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. ... Cabinet meeting on May 16, 2001. ... For other uses, see Tocqueville (disambiguation) Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (b. ... Edward Livingston (May 26, 1764–May 23, 1836) was a prominent American jurist and statesman. ...

Examples of use

• [1] Editorial- Does Newt Gingrich see himself as America's Prime Minister?
• [2] Gingrich again mentioned as "almost as a de facto prime minister."
• [3] Donald Regan's Prime Ministerial nickname
• [4] Kenneth Duberstein calls Cheney the "Prime Minister"
• [5] Editorial mentioning the de facto "Prime Minister" Vice President of the Bush administration

In the early 1950s, the Prime Minister of the United States was a character played by Frazier Thomas on the afternoon children's television show Garfield Goose and Friends. // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby boom from returning... Frazier Thomas, born in Rushville, Indiana, USA in 1918 and died in Chicago Illinois, USA in 1985 was an American television personality. ... In the 1950s and 1960s, a childrens television show was shown by WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States called Garfield Goose and Friends. ...