Antoine Louis Léocardie Élie Lescot (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃twan lwi leɔkaʁdi eli lɛsko]; December 9, 1883 – October 20, 1974) was the President of Haiti from May 15, 1941 to January 11, 1946.

Lescot was born in Saint-Louis-du-Nord to a middle-class mixed-race family, descended from free persons of color in the colonial era.

After a four-year stay in France during the United States occupation of Haiti (1915 to 1934), he returned and held posts in the Louis Borno and Sténio Vincent administrations.

Prominent members of the Chamber of Deputies opposed his candidacy, arguing Haiti needed a black president from a majority African ancestry.

Lescot quickly moved to consolidate his control over the state apparatus, naming himself head of the Military Guard and appointing a clique of white and mixed-race members of the elite to major government posts, including his own sons.

The program was called the Société Haïtiano-Américane de Développement Agricole (SHADA) and managed by American agronomist Thomas Fennell.

Farmers in Haiti's northern countryside were lured from food crop cultivation to meet increasing demand for rubber.

"The worst thing that can be said of SHADA is that they are doing [their operations] at considerable expense to the American taxpayer and in a manner that does not command the respect of the Haitian people", concluded a survey by the US military.

Lescot feared SHADA's termination would add the burden of higher unemployment (at its height it employed over 90,000 people) to a sinking economy and hurt his public image.

With his government near bankruptcy and struggling with a flagging economy, Lescot pleaded unsuccessfully with the United States for an extension on debt repayments.

In the immediate aftermath of Lescot's exile, an independent radio and print press flourished and long-repressed dissident groups expressed optimism about Haiti's future.