History Main / PresidentEvil

* BobRoberts becomes one at the end of the movie, after spending the whole movie revealing how corrupt and extremist he is (to the point of [[spoiler: faking an assassination attempt to win sympathy votes and pin the blame on a journalist trying to expose him, which ends with the journalist getting shot and killed, presumably by one of Roberts' {{Loony Fan}}s]])

* Various alternate realities in ''StargateSG1'' where Senator Kinsey managed to become President.

** For a while, there was a promotional website called [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080429054910/www.maxforpresident.org/ maxforpresident.org]], which contained a Donate button (not working on the Wayback Machine) which claimed to syphon dollars donated to organisations like [[{{Myst}} the D'ni Restoration Council]], [[GrimFandango The Communist Party of Rubacava]], [=eBay=], [[MonkeyIsland The Melee Island Bureau of Tourism]] and Sam's Wallet into Max's funds. His fundrasing goals were things like jaunty hats for his Secretary of State, spinning rims for the [=DeSoto=], a girlfriend for his pet goldfish Mr. Spatula, an $254 Executive Box of tissues and 'recovery of Presidential email password'.

** [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Crown himself king?]]

** He's generally a very good ruler, bringing his country peace and technological advancements. It's only his hatred towards Reed Richards that pushes him towards the MadScientist side.
*** Except for the part where Latveria (and when he conquers it, the world) is a hyperefficient PoliceState. Which, granted, is still a step up from the corrupt, brutal, crapsack PoliceState it was ''before'' Doom cleaned it up.

** The Beast, his predecessor, isn't much better. He is, by all accounts, a venal, selfish bastard, and the main reason he's called "the Beast" is because Spider nicknamed him that and it stuck (to the point that even the guy's ''kids'' call him that). But Spider insists that, for all his corruption, the Beast is something America's handled before -- the Smiler is just someone who wants to be President for no reason other than he thinks he should, and he'll do anything to get in there.

* In the novel ''AGirlWhoBroughtDownTheWorld'', Christopher Winnifred Vega [[hottip:*:a CaptainErsatz of [[{{Sonichu}} Christian Weston Chandler]] is made President of the US thanks to a massive conspiracy. In due time, he ravages the entire world in an attempt to bring in a girl he had fallen in love with years ago who had no interest in him.

** [[ZeroPunctuation Crown himself king?]]

* Philip Nolan Voigt in Marvel's NewUniverse, a paranormal who can duplicate any other paranormal's powers, only better, uses his abilities to become President. [[note]][[Series/{{Heroes}} Sound familiar?]][[/note]] Also, Voigt tries to intimidate an IntrepidReporter by threatening his elderly mother.

* In VideoGame/SaintsRowIV, The Boss has gone from criminal kingpin/mass murderer to the President of the United States.

** Which is odd because Kinsey doesn't seem to even have a political platform.
*** Nothing beyond "Stop the SGC from using the Stargate so that the National Institute of Defense can use it to make Earth safe by killing anything that isn't from Earth", anyway.
*** The only times you ever see Kinsey is when he's interacting with the top-secret Stargate program. Safe to assume that he does have a platform, we just never found out what it was because 1) they didn't want to offend the viewers and 2) it's not relevant to his role on the show.

* The trope name is taken from the Comicbook/{{Superman}} arc in which LexLuthor became President of the United States, which is most likely a play on the title of the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series.

** It's actually more of a multi-arc crossover -- he remains president for several years, and becomes more involved in the rest of the DC continuity (for example, framing [[BatMan Bruce Wayne]] for murder in a lengthy arc in ''that'' comic). Surprisingly, though, he's not any more evil than usual; he's no more corrupt or power mad than when he was a regular CorruptCorporateExecutive. The only time he really snaps is a relatively short arc in ''[[ComicBook/SupermanBatman Superman/Batman]]'' where he tries to frame Superman for a Kryptonite comet heading to Earth, and then loses it -- this is what gets him impeached. Going on a killing spree with your old Apokoliptian powersuit will do that.

* During the '80s, when tensions with Iran were still high after the hostage crisis, the Joker from {{Batman}}, who'd just killed Jason Todd in Africa, was chosen to serve as Iran's UN representative, thus giving him diplomatic immunity. I'll repeat that: ''Iran made The Joker a diplomat.'' This was later {{retcon}}ned so that it was {{Qurac}}, a (fictitious) terrorist state, that gave The Joker diplomatic immunity.

* In VideoGame/SaintsRowIV, The Boss is elected as the President of the United States. Keep in mind that The Boss is a murderous criminal kingpin.

* [=GamePro=] Magazine used "PresidentEvil" during the April Fools issue (with a zombie version of Abe Lincoln on the cover) a few months after VideoGame/ResidentEvil first came out.

** From ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', we have [[spoiler: a PresidentEvil-to-be: Senator Armstrong]].

* Philip Nolan Voigt in Marvel's NewUniverse, a paranormal who can duplicate any other paranormal's powers, only better, uses his abilities to become President. [[note]][[Series/{{Heroes}} Sound familiar]][[/note]]? Also, Voigt tries to intimidate an IntrepidReporter by threatening his elderly mother.

* ''TheAuthority''. The President of the U.S. even ''confesses'' to being a shill for big business. The Authority, who has had a long history of taking down dictators, depose ''him.'' Things go okay for a while, until The Midnighter figures out it's all heading south and fast. Unfortunately, the only way to stop it is to [[spoiler: let D.C. explode. Boom.]]

* Philip Nolan Voigt in Marvel's NewUniverse, a paranormal who can duplicate any other paranormal's powers, only better, uses his abilities to become President. [[Series/{{Heroes}} sound familiar]]? Also, Voigt tries to intimidate an IntrepidReporter by threatening his elderly mother.

* ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'': Spider's problems get a whole lot worse once The Smiler becomes president. The Secret Service stalks his filthy assistants, assassins start crawling up his butt, and his stories get killed for reasons of "national security." He's able to give as good as he gets...

* Around the time of the Watergate scandal, CaptainAmerica discovered that the head of the terrorist organization known as the Secret Empire was in fact "a high-ranking government official" (i.e. President Nixon). He was sufficiently horrified by this that he temporarily abandoned the Captain America identity, calling himself "Nomad". It's not clear what Nixon was supposed to have meant to accomplish by running a conspiracy to take over the U.S.A.

* Though not exactly a President, {{Norman Osborn}} was like this from the SecretInvasion to the {{Siege}} storylines.

* In ''{{Elektra}}: Assassin'', the Beast manages to get Ken Wind elected president, but Elektra thwarts the plan with her psychic powers and ninja skills.

* In ''HarryPotter and The DeathlyHallows'' Voldemort manages to [[spoiler:take control over the Ministry of Magic and all of wizarding England by placing Imperius Curses over some officials, murdering others, and placing Death Eaters and sympathizers of his cause in positions of power]]. This allows him to (without much resistance, thanks to the previous Ministers) [[spoiler: enact what would end up as a pureblood regime.]] However, Voldemort never seems interested in becoming Minister of Magic himself.

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'' did it, too, with Solidus Snake - ex-President of the United States. The 'ex' part was the all important part, though. He was more a traditional baddie who happened to have once been President. The Patriots were a better example - the [[ThePlan man plotted and often elaborate plan]]-loving council which secretly ruled the United States since about the 1970's, and have plans for world domination. It really gets bad when [[spoiler: all the Patriots are either dead, in a coma, a vegetable, or actively trying to stop the rogue AI they created from trying to take over the world]]
** From ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', we have [[spoiler:Senator Armstrong]].

* In ''TheDeadZone'', Johnny Smith (played by ChristopherWalken) shakes the hand of politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) and forsees that he will become president who, in a moment of megalomania ("YOU are not the voice of the people! I AM THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE!"), orders a nuclear strike, thus destroying the world. [[HilariousInHindsight This scene is pretty funny to those who mainly know]] [[TheWestWing Sheen as the wise, principled President Jed Bartlet]]

* In the console version of ''RainbowSix 3'', the BigBad turns out to be the President of Venezuela, who is secretly the mastermind behind terrorist attacks on the U.S. by seemingly Middle Eastern groups.

* In ''{{Zombo}}'', Donald Trump is president of Earth, and when he isn't an unholy spawn of George Bush and Ronald Reagan, he runs the planet like ''TheApprentice''. Also, he [[KickTheDog shredded a puppy]].
* In ''CaptainBritain'', Mad Jim Jaspers is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom... and also a RealityWarper whose powers drive him completely insane. He becomes a supervillain in two different {{Alternate Universe}}s and leads campaigns to wipe out the world's metahuman population so he can play with the world undisturbed.

This supervillain doesn't just have an ElaborateUndergroundBase, they have their own ''country'', often a {{Ruritania}}, BananaRepublic, or {{Qurac}}. This affords them so many resources and so much power that the heroes [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption are never able to truly beat them]].

Similar to the EvilOverlord, but with an international scope. See also TheCaligula, which is this trope turned UpToEleven, ''sans'' the Democracy. [[OurPresidentsAreDifferent A Different sort of President.]] Not to be confused with [[WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy Hoss Delgado]]'s appearance in the fictional [[ShowWithinAShow video game within a show]] ''President Evil,'' or with the actual video game series ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''.

* Mark Waid's ''{{Empire}}'' details what happens when a Doctor Doom-esque villain actually succeeds in taking over the planet.