How To Contact the President

The President of the United States is unquestionably one of the most powerful people in the world. Being able to contact him and sound off on your views to him - be it about politics, education, the environment, war or social issues - would be a huge step towards the fulfillment and carrying out of your particular issue and advocacy. It's your right as a concerned American citizen to have your views reach the Office of the President; after all, no matter how powerful he is, the President's ultimate responsibility is to serve you as a citizen of the country.

So what are the ways of being able to contact the President of the United States? One of these would be the traditional way: via snail mail. Write to him at the following address:

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

A faster, easier way of sending a letter to the President would be through email. Write to him at president@whitehouse.gov. You could also send your mail through to the White House office at comments@whitehouse.gov.

Yet another way of contacting the President would be through dialing the following numbers: 202-456-1111 for comments, and 202-456-1414 for the White House switchboard. To fax the Office, you could fax your letter at 202-456-2461.

Since the President is a very busy man, attending several functions and meetings on a daily basis, don't expect him to personally answer each and every correspondence from private American citizens. It's just not humanly possible for him to be able to do that. That's why you should expect that your letter would reach only the presidential staff members, and only if it is truly and validly urgent will it ever reach him. That's why it's worth considering that instead of writing to the President himself, perhaps it's better and would serve your advocacies better if you would just address your correspondence to the appropriate Department or Cabinet member. For example, if you have some suggestions regarding the military, perhaps you could voice these suggestions to the Department of Defense instead.

When writing your correspondence, make sure that you keep it brief and to the point. You would want the staff member reading it to get the essence of your letter in a very short period. It's a good idea to list your concerns in bullet form instead of using long-winded sentences in paragraph form. Afterwards, specify your contact numbers clearly just in case they would want to get more elaborate details from you.

The worst thing you could do is to send threats to the President. Know that such threats are taken dead seriously, and they would be able to trace your call or correspondence back to you.

The second worst thing you could do is to send along flowers, gifts or food along with your correspondence. These are perceived as threats to the President's security, and they'll be thrown away. What you did would simply have been to waste your money.

These are the ways you can reach the President of the United States. Do have realistic expectations and know that there are many other ways - such as through lobbying, or initiating a media awareness campaign through blogging and video uploading - that you could get the attention of the government. Also, be careful to act within moral and ethical standards, no matter how angry you might be at the current systems of government. Remember: work with the system, and you just might be able to start some improvements from within. Good luck!