Each President's Favorite President?

[Alben Barkley]

Trump has said it's Andrew Jackson, but "himself" is of course the real answer.

I'm guessing Lincoln was the favorite president of Obama. The two had quite a bit in common, not only in terms of being from Illinois but also in terms of their intellectual yet charismatic/witty personalities and manners of speech.

The obvious choice for W is his father, but he expressed a lot of admiration for Lincoln and Reagan as well.

I believe Clinton has actually said FDR was his favorite president, though of course he admired JFK as well (and famously met him as a teenager).

HW's favorite was probably... Eisenhower? Not sure honestly. He was Reagan's VP but the two were never that close, and he worked for Nixon but I doubt he would have said he was his favorite. Probably Ike or Teddy or Lincoln, I'm guessing. Maybe even Washington or something. He's always reminded me a bit of John Adams, personally, whether he saw that parallel himself or not.

Reagan, believe it or not, took a lot of inspiration from FDR. Of course he was a big fan during the FDR years, but even during his own presidency he never lost his admiration for FDR, looking to him often for influence on things like rhetoric and style even though his own policies were now far to the right of FDR's. However, Reagan indeed also looked up to Coolidge, reviving his conservative policies and sort of blending them with FDR's style. You might even say that odd mix of Coolidge and FDR was key to Reagan's success.

Carter admired Truman, and borrowed his famous "The Buck Stops Here" sign for use on the Oval Office desk again.

Ford's favorite was probably Washington or Lincoln or something, I'm guessing, but I honestly am not too sure of this one. Maybe Eisenhower?

Nixon's was known to be Lincoln, even though he hardly resembled "Honest Abe."

LBJ was a huge fan of FDR, of course. He saw him as a role model during the New Deal years during which he himself played a part implementing his agenda. But he also looked up to Lincoln and dreamed of being remembered as the 20th century Lincoln, inspiring many of his Civil Rights efforts.

JFK was actually a big admirer of Thomas Jefferson, once famously saying to a gathering of intellectuals at the White House that there had never been as much intelligence in that room before, except when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Eisenhower's favorite was definitely Washington, for pretty obvious reasons.

For Truman it actually might have been Andrew Jackson, who he read a lot about in his childhood in Jackson County; that idealized image of Jackson became something of a hero to him.

FDR's was probably his cousin Teddy, who he greatly looked up to. But I'm sure he had a soft spot for Wilson as well, as his administration was the first he served in. He also quoted Jefferson a lot.

[Alben Barkley]

I've read Nixon strangely admired Wilson.

I guess it's not that strange since the favorite policy area of both was foreign policy. But Wilson was a liberal internationalist and Nixon a foreign policy "realist," so they were quite different in that regard.

They had similar personalities too in that both were quite stubborn and rigid; Nixon likely would have seen Wilson as a "fighter" like himself.