What is The number of years the president serves?

Answer 1

The term of the President of the United States is four years. Presidents are allowed to serve two terms. If they come into office in the middle of a term (because a president resigns, is impeached and convicted, or dies) then it counts as one of those two terms if two or more years are left on the original term. If there are less than two years, it doesn't count.

A president could therefore serve any length of time between "a few minutes" (if he died at his inauguration) and "just under 10 years" (if he succeeded to the office past the midpoint of a term, and then was subsequently re-elected twice).

The shortest rule of any president was that of William Henry Harrison, who got sick at his inauguration and died a month later. The longest rule of any president was that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was president for a little over 12 years (he was elected four times ... this was before the term limits mentioned above were enacted ... and died shortly after starting his fourth term).

David Atchison (who some claim to have been "president for a day") was never actually president. The term of the outgoing President (Polk) expired at noon on a Sunday and the incoming president (Taylor) refused to be inaugurated on a Sunday due to his religious beliefs. However, most scholars hold that Taylor, inauguration or no, became President at the moment Polk's term expired (though he could not actually execute any of the functions of the office until being formally sworn in). If Taylor wasn't President because he wasn't sworn in as President until the next day, then neither was Atchison, who ALSO wasn't sworn in as President (ever). Atchison's "Presidency" was mainly a joke by one of his buddies, who realized that for one day the US was without a duly inaugurated President OR Vice President (under the succession rules in effect at the time, the first person in the order of succession was the Vice President, followed by the Chair of the Senate if the Vice Presidency was also vacant). Atchison was awakened at three in the morning by this friend with the joking request that Atchison, as acting President, appoint him Secretary of State.

Answer 2

In the United States, the President's term lasts for four years. In addition, he is allowed to run for a second term for a total of eight possible years in office.