Who was the poorest man to be elected president of the US?

Answer 1

All I know is that the poorest U.S. president was definitely not Jefferson. Jefferson was one of the richest men in the colonies and certainly one of the most successful; in fact, if you adjust the inflation, I'm sure that Jefferson would be one of the wealthiest presidents in United States history.

But I do know that Lincoln was very poor and so was Truman, although your question was who was the poorest man to ever be ELECTED president and Truman was Franklin Roosevelt's Vice President at the time of his death, becoming the president automatically.

Answer 2

My choices are Ulysses Grant first and Lincoln second. U.S Grant had been very poor before his success in the Civil War. He had only four or five years of a good salary before he ran for President. He had never had a big income before . Lincoln was collecting large fees by the time he was elected, but his success was fairly recent. He did not hold any lucrative office before the presidency and his wife spent a lot. His house in Springfield is not a mansion by any stretch of the imagination.

Jefferson was often short of money, but that was because he always had expensive projects going. Monroe also had money problems at times, but was definitely an aristocrat by birth.