Who is in charge of the executive branch?

Why this is the answer

The answer is the President, the official the Constitution has in mind when it says the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States. That branch carries out the laws Congress passes, and Article II tells the President to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. Answer with the title of the office. The question is about the job, which stays the same no matter who holds it. The President fills two roles at once, head of state and head of government. The USCIS lessons list what comes with the office: signing treaties with other countries, choosing ambassadors to represent the United States, naming the top leaders of the federal departments, setting national policy and proposing laws to Congress. The Constitution also makes the President commander in chief of the Army and Navy. Several of these powers come with a limit attached. A treaty needs the consent of two thirds of the senators present, and when the President picks a new Supreme Court justice, the Senate has the power to reject the choice. Why put one person in charge instead of a council? Federalist No. 70, printed in the New York Packet in March 1788, called "energy in the Executive" a leading mark of good government and named unity as the first thing that produces it, on the reasoning that decision and speed come more naturally to one person than to a group, and fade as the number of people grows. The Vice President and the members of the Cabinet are part of the executive branch too, which is why they can sound like reasonable answers. They belong to the branch, but the Constitution vests the executive power in the President alone. Officials of the other two branches, such as the leaders of the Supreme Court or of the House, are further off still. A single word is enough here, and it is the same word every time the question is asked.