what oath does the president take

The president of the United States takes this oath at inauguration:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Quick Scoop: What oath does the president take?

The exact wording of the presidential oath is written directly into the U.S. Constitution in Article II, Section 1, Clause 8, which is unusual because most other federal oaths are created by laws, not placed in the Constitution itself.

Those 35 words are:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,
and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

A president can say “swear” or “affirm,” which was included so people with religious or personal objections to swearing oaths could still assume the office.

How and when the oath is taken

• The oath is taken at the inauguration ceremony, usually at the U.S. Capitol, around noon on January 20 following a presidential election.

• It is administered by the Chief Justice of the United States, who speaks the oath in short phrases for the president to repeat.

• Most presidents place their left hand on a Bible or other sacred text and raise their right hand, but the Constitution does not require a Bible or any religious text.

• When the oath is completed, one president’s term legally ends and the new president’s term begins at that moment.

A common example: during a modern inauguration, the vice president is sworn in first using a different statutory oath, and then the president takes the constitutional presidential oath.

“So help me God” and small variations

• The constitutional text does not include the phrase “So help me God,” but many presidents voluntarily add it at the end.

• Historical records are mixed on whether George Washington actually said that phrase; later presidents clearly did.

• Minor word mis-orderings have happened; for instance, a word was out of sequence during Barack Obama’s first 2009 swearing-in, leading him to retake the oath later “out of an abundance of caution.”

These small slips don’t generally invalidate the oath, but presidents sometimes redo it just to avoid any legal challenge or public doubt.

Why this oath matters

• The oath is a public promise to the Constitution , not to a person, party, or branch of government.

• It requires the president to:
  • Faithfully execute the office.
  • Preserve the Constitution.
  • Protect the Constitution.
  • Defend the Constitution.

Because it’s so short and precise, commentators often describe those 35 words as setting the core legal and moral duty of the presidency for the next four years.

Related oaths (quick context)

Other federal officials—members of Congress, federal employees, and the vice president—take a different , longer oath created by statute that includes language about “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

However, only the president uses the specific 35-word constitutional oath you asked about.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.