President of the United States amount of military detail handled personally by the President in wartime has varied dramatically. George Washington, the first U.S. president, firmly established military subordination under civilian authority. In 1794, Washington used his constitutional powers to assemble 12,000 militia to quell the Whiskey Rebellion—a conflict in western Pennsylvania involving armed farmers and distillers who refused to pay excise tax on spirits. According to historian Joseph Ellis, this was the "first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field", though James Madison briefly took control of artillery units in defense of Washington D.C. during the War of 1812.
The American President was a thinly veiled plagiarism of Richert's 1981 screenplay "The President Elopes". After Guild arbitration, Sorkin was awarded full credit on "The American President". Richert also claimed that the television series "The West Wing" was derived from part of the same screenplay. Upon its theatrical release, "The American President" proved to be successful at the box office with a worldwide gross of $107.9 million on a budget of $62 million. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: On Metacritic, the film