Presidential Etiquette Quotes

Presidents have a right to certain prerogatives, including the expectation of a certain deference. He's the president; this is history. But we seem to have come a long way since Ronald Reagan was regularly barked at by Sam Donaldson, almost literally, and the president shrugged it off.

If the Trump White House and their allies in the media want to have this conversation about decency, I welcome them to the table to talk about it. But there's a bunch of stuff that they need to get caught up on before we get to a comedian at the White House dinner.

Hitler didn't snub me - it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.

Part of what we'll have to figure out is what do you call the male spouse of a female president? Now, it's a little bit more complicated with him because people still call former presidents Mr. President.

I think about Laura Bush every once in awhile. She is a great supporter of the arts. I did a show at the Eisenhower Theater, and she would make a point of coming backstage. The relationship between Laura and George Bush was always that way where you felt like he was at his best behavior when he was in her company.

Words do not necessarily make us moral. And there have been presidents before who have stumbled over syntax and looked foolish when the words they have been forced to speak have been their own. But Trump is uniquely stunted. A child listening to two of his speeches could reproduce a third without the use of a dictionary.

There is a certain kind of sobering, civilizing effect that being president imposes on people. There is a certain kind of dignity with which you comport yourself. As an observer of the presidency, I have to wonder if Trump would follow that pattern.

Madison, the President is a plain and rather mean-looking little man, of great simplicity of manners, and an inveterate enemy to form and ceremony so much so that I was officially informed that my introduction with him was to be considered nothing more than the reception of one gentleman by another, and that no particular dress was to be worn on the occasion.

In their day, no man worthy of the presidency would ever stoop to campaigning for it. George Washington was asked to serve. Decades later, his successors were also expected to sit by the phone.

There should be some civility when it comes to being president of the United States.

Mr. Roosevelt, when you are in Washington as long as I have been, you will learn that the President of the United States calls on nobody.

Yesterday in Florida, President Obama kissed a woman on the cheek after she told him he looks good. Which explains why last night, Michelle made him sleep on Air Mattress One.

In classic Trump fashion, the president is pursuing a reasonable idea in the most jarring manner possible.

Ronald Reagan would never go into the Oval Office without his jacket on - that's how much he revered the presidency.

Certainly, the country can't have two presidents at once, so the tradition has been to hang back if you're the president-elect and wait for your time in office. [Donald] Trump is not a hang-back kind of guy.

On style points alone, Donald Trump makes GWB look magnificently presidential.

Well, it was a typical meeting with the President. He was very gracious, very outgoing.

In an Inaguaral Address, it’s important not to kick the predecessor.

The way this works for us Presidents is … we always tell whoever wins that we were crossing our fingers.

I think Donald Trump's language and the way that he presents things oftentimes is not good.

No man who ever held the office of President would ever congratulate a friend on obtaining it.

Donald Trump's not politically correct. Although you are running for president, you should be politically correct. But there is also the expression of an artist.

Presidents aren't supposed to spit, at least not obviously.

George W. Bush did not go on television to trash [Donald] Trump.

They asked me to go in front of the Reagans. I'm not used to going in front of President Reagan, so we went out behind the Bushes.