When most people ask who was the 27th president, they usually get a one-sentence answer about a bathtub. It’s a shame. Honestly, William Howard Taft is one of those historical figures we’ve flattened into a caricature, a sort of jolly, oversized punchline stuck between the high-octane energy of Teddy Roosevelt and the academic sternness of Woodrow Wilson. But Taft was a lot more than just a big guy in a big chair.
He didn’t even want the job. That’s the wild part.
Taft was a man of the law, a guy who dreamt of the Supreme Court, not the Oval Office. He was basically pushed into the presidency by his wife, Nellie, and his best friend, Teddy Roosevelt. Imagine being pressured into the most powerful job on Earth when all you really want to do is wear a robe and argue about constitutional law. It’s kind of tragic if you think about it. He spent four years being compared to a legend, struggling to keep a fractured party together, and eventually losing his best friend in a political breakup that makes modern Twitter feuds look like a playground spat.
The Man Behind the Myth: Getting to Know William Howard Taft
To understand who was the 27th president, you have to look past the 330-pound frame. Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, into a family that breathed politics and law. He was brilliant. He graduated second in his class at Yale and rose through the legal ranks with a speed that would make a modern career politician dizzy. Before he was president, he was a judge, the Solicitor General, and the Governor-General of the Philippines.
He was actually a decent administrator. In the Philippines, he was genuinely liked, which is a rare thing for a colonial governor. He called the Filipino people his "little brown brothers"—a term that sounds incredibly condescending today but was considered progressive and paternalistic at the time. He worked on civil improvements and established a judicial system. He was a "process" guy. He liked rules. He liked order.
Then came the 1908 election. Teddy Roosevelt, the outgoing force of nature, hand-picked Taft to carry on the "Square Deal" legacy. Taft won easily. But the problem was that Taft wasn't Roosevelt. While TR led by sheer force of personality and "bully pulpit" charisma, Taft led like a judge. He was slow. He was deliberate. He didn't care about the optics, which is a death sentence in Washington.
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The Bathtub Legend and the Reality of Taft’s Health
Everyone knows the bathtub story. The legend says he got stuck in a White House tub and four men had to pry him out with butter. It’s almost certainly fake. While Taft was undeniably large—reaching about 340 pounds at his peak—there’s no actual contemporary evidence he ever got stuck. He did, however, have a custom-built tub installed that was seven feet long and could hold four ordinary men.
But there’s a serious side to this. Taft suffered from severe sleep apnea. During meetings, he would often drift off into a deep sleep, his head rolling back, mid-conversation. Imagine trying to run a country while you’re literally nodding off because your body isn't getting enough oxygen at night. It wasn't laziness; it was a medical crisis.
His weight was a constant struggle. He tried diets. He worked with a "weight loss doctor" named Nathaniel Yorke-Davies through correspondence. He’d lose eighty pounds and then gain it all back. It’s a very human struggle that makes the "27th president" feel a lot more relatable than the marble statues in D.C. would suggest.
Why Taft was Actually a Better Trust-Buster Than Roosevelt
Here is something your high school history teacher might have glossed over. We call Teddy Roosevelt the "Trust-Buster," but Taft actually busted more trusts in four years than Roosevelt did in seven and a half.
Taft brought 90 lawsuits against monopolies compared to Roosevelt’s 44. He went after the big dogs, including Standard Oil and American Tobacco. But because he did it through the court system rather than through fiery speeches and newspaper headlines, he didn't get the credit. He was a quiet effective. He believed the law should be the tool for reform, not the whims of a president.
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This legalistic approach is ultimately what drove a wedge between him and Roosevelt. When Taft’s administration went after U.S. Steel—a merger Roosevelt had personally approved—Teddy felt betrayed. He felt Taft was attacking his honor. This sparked the 1912 election chaos where Roosevelt came back, formed the "Bull Moose" party, and essentially handed the presidency to the Democrats.
The Greatest Comeback in Political History
Most presidents lose an election and just... go away. They build a library, they paint, they give speeches for $200k a pop. Not Taft. After losing the 1912 election (he actually came in third, which is embarrassing for an incumbent), he went back to Yale to teach.
But his real goal was still out there. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed him Chief Justice of the United States.
He is the only person to have headed both the executive and judicial branches. Think about that. He presided over the court for nine years, and he loved every second of it. He famously said, "I don't remember that I ever was president." To him, the White House was a detour. The Supreme Court was home. As Chief Justice, he was a massive reformer, streamlining the way the court handled cases and lobbying for the construction of the Supreme Court Building—the one that still stands today with "Equal Justice Under Law" carved into the front.
Key Facts About the 27th President
If you’re looking for the quick-hit details on Taft, here is the breakdown without the fluff:
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- Term: 1909–1913
- Party: Republican
- Vice President: James S. Sherman (who actually died in office)
- The "First" President to: Own a car (he converted the White House stables to a garage), throw out the first pitch at a Major League Baseball game, and be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
- The Mustache: It was arguably the most magnificent facial hair in presidential history. A handlebar mustache that required serious wax and dedication.
What We Can Learn From the Taft Legacy
Taft teaches us that you can be "successful" at a job and still be the wrong fit for it. He was a successful president in terms of policy and legislative achievement, but he was a failure at the "performance" of being president. He hated the press. He hated campaigning. He hated the "small talk" of the smoke-filled rooms.
He also proves that your first act doesn't have to be your best act. If Taft had died in 1913, he’d be a footnote. Because he lived to become Chief Justice, he became a titan of American law.
How to Explore Taft’s History Today
If you really want to get a feel for the 27th president, don't just read a Wikipedia page.
- Visit the Taft National Historic Site: It’s in Cincinnati. You can see his birthplace and get a sense of the Victorian environment that shaped his rigid sense of duty.
- Read "The Bully Pulpit" by Doris Kearns Goodwin: It’s a brick of a book, but it’s the definitive account of the friendship and eventual fallout between Taft and Roosevelt. It reads like a Greek tragedy.
- Check out the Supreme Court Building: Walk up those steps and remember that the "big guy" from the bathtub stories is the reason that building exists.
Taft wasn't a revolutionary. He wasn't a firebrand. He was a man who believed in the slow, grinding gears of the law. In a world that loves "disruptors," there’s something kind of refreshing about a guy who just wanted the system to work exactly how it was written on the paper. He was the 27th president, but he was the Chief Justice he always wanted to be.
Actionable Insight: If you're researching Taft for a project or general interest, focus on his 1912 split with Roosevelt. It provides the best window into his character—his stubbornness, his loyalty to the law over friendship, and his refusal to play the political games that might have saved his presidency. Study his Supreme Court opinions (like Myers v. United States) to see where his true brilliance lay.