13 Presidents Who Were Alarmingly Hot When They Were Young

*clutches pearls*

1. William Howard Taft

Yale University / Via images.library.yale.edu

Hotness level: 🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Here's a hottie who is seemingly overwhelmingly attractive in comparison to his older self. But look, there is a determined hotness in his face, the same kind of determinedness that would certainly lead one to wedge oneself into a bathtub that is FAR TOO SMALL for one's frame. But I'm talking in generalities here, of course.

2. Calvin Coolidge

michaelkmilton.tumblr.com

Hotness level: 🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

The hat, the cane, the gloves, and the overconfident pose here seem like too much, but for the notoriously reticent and idiosyncratic Coolidge, it's weirdly just right. In fact, the photo session here probably went something like this:

Photographer: Hey Cal, how 'bout a smile to brighten up that handsome mug?

Coolidge: No.

Photographer: OK, why don't you think about the perfect insult to eviscerate dining companions with?

Coolidge: *Fucking nails it.*

3. Ulysses S. Grant

The Ulysses S. Grant Homepage

Hotness level: 🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Problematic fave*, sure, but let us not forget that this is a man whose real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, but before he entered the army, he got rid of his first name because he didn't want his initials to be HUG.

I'd give him a hug. Just saying.

*Many of these are problematic, let's be real, so with that out of the way, can we just agree to appreciate their young, fresh faces before they got all literally and figuratively corrupt? K? K.

4. Woodrow Wilson

Heritage Auctions / Via historical.ha.com

Hotness level: 🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Ole Woody was hot, in a "guy you get stuck talking to at a frat party who won't shut up about his dad's foreign investments" kind of way. Or, you know, a "would unironically screen Birth of a Nation in the White House and wow you are so racist" kind of way.

5. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FDR Presidential Library & Museum / Via fdrlibrary.org

Hotness level: 🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Roosevelt came into his hotness in a time when "jaunty chin" was the biggest compliment a man could hope for, so his good looks weren't exactly a secret. This Victorian Ryan Gosling put his best face forward, popped a fucking pince-nez onto it, and married his fifth cousin once removed. As one does.

6. Teddy Roosevelt

Harvard Library / Via narcissus1912.blogspot.com

Hotness level: 🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

This is such an appealingly symmetrical and nice and lovely face that it only makes sense that he chose to accessorize it with a pince-nez as an adult. Nothing is sacred.

7. Richard Nixon

Getty Images

Hotness level: 🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Hear me out. Actually, uh...never mind. Just look at his shockingly handsome, brooding face for a minute, and then move on.

8. Ronald Reagan

Getty Images

Hotness level: 🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Maybe not shocking, considering he was a famous actor before he was president, but then again, so is, like, Steve Buscemi.

9. George W. Bush

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc / Getty Images

Hotness level: 🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Did anyone see this coming? I sure as hell didn't. He looks pretty much the same as he does now, which is impressive on its own, but he's got that new DILF glow going on, and praise to Barney and Miss Beazley, it's working for him.

10. Gerald Ford

CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

Hotness level: 🚨🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

So I mean, Ford was an actual model, so this isn't at all surprising, but Ford holds up. He could still get it in 2016, and not all of these guys can say that (lookin' at you, FDR).

11. James Garfield

michaelkmilton.tumblr.com

Hotness level: 🚨🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Hooooo boy. Take a minute to drink a glass of water, because this is a lot to take in. Dude. You know he's hot when you can feel his blue eyes pierce your heart even in a black-and-white photo, and this is a guy who knew a thing or two about things piercing bodies.

Sorry.

12. Barack Obama

Apic / Getty Images

Hotness level: 🚨🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

The reports of Obama's attractiveness are greatly exaggerated, and yet, we must make more of them. More reports, I say!

13. Rutherford B. Hayes

Matthew Levine / Via mydaguerreotypeboyfriend.tumblr.com

Hotness level: 🚨🚨🚨 out of 🚨🚨🚨

Okay, young Hayes was fucking HOT, and not just in comparison to his bewhiskered look of his later years.

Hayes was the kind of universally-appealing hot that would have made him a perfect early stock photo model.

Hayes was the kind of hot that would make you mad because it also looks like there's a decently good person behind those warm, almost hypnotizing brown eyes.

Which also means he was probably the kind of hot that didn't even realize how hot he was, and NOT JUST BECAUSE people could basically only see their reflection in ponds in the 1840s.