Voiced by Keith David and created by Wes Archer and Tom Kauffman, based on then-sitting Presidents of the United States Barack Obama and Donald Trump in his first two appearances, the President shares a love–hate relationship with Rick Sanchez, often alternating between calling upon him and his grandson Morty Smith to protect America from various threats, to attempting to have him arrested or killed.

[9] The character was created by Wes Archer and Tom Kauffman for the 2015 Rick and Morty second season episode "Get Schwifty", initially written as a generic unnamed stand-in for then-sitting President of the United States Barack Obama.

In September 2017, Dan Harmon confirmed that the writing for the tail-end of the series' third season had occurred during Donald Trump's then-ongoing presidential campaign was inspired by "the idea of a cartoonishly bad president" for the character's appearance in "The Rickchurian Mortydate" in contrast to their original depiction, following "how out of control presidential power has gotten"; by the time the episode aired in October 2017, Trump had been elected and serving in the office for almost a year.

In the second season episode "Get Schwifty", the President meets Rick and his grandson Morty Smith in the Pentagon after the pair teleport in to inform the U.S. government as to the identity of the massive alien head which has appeared over the Earth, interfering with its gravity and spawning several global disasters: a Cromulon, seeking a live performance of a catchy new song lest the planet be destroyed.

After Rick and Morty refuse and separate themselves from the President, he has the pair arrested as they attempt to make first contact with a miniature civilization discovered in the Amazon rainforest.

In the season finale, "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation", after Rickbot (a "22%-more-agreeable" robotic duplicate of Rick) gives Morty a working Star Wars lightsaber, and he accidentally drops it "perfectly fucking vertical", tunnelling into the Earth, the President arrives at the Smith family household to deride Morty for doing so, criticising the acquisition of the property by Disney and the perceived poor quality of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

After convincing Rick to help build a device that would allow the President and Morty to retrieve the descending lightsaber before it reaches the core and destroys the planet, the President confiscates the lightsaber for himself, and on later playing with it in the White House, accidentally drops it "perfectly fucking vertical" himself, publicly blaming Morty for the descent while launching the White House into space to protect himself.

Later, after Morty and Rickbot retrieve the lightsaber, they travel to space to seek revenge on the President, destroying the White House before Rick rescues them via a portal to their garage.

In "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie", a flashback shows the man-who-would-be-President campaigning in the 1990s, seeking the support of Ice-T through his math teacher Mr. Goldenfold.

In the comic series issue "Close Rick-counters of the Drippy Kind", set on May 31, 2017, the President arrives at the Smith household to get Rick's advice on how to deal with the "space racists" Spatio 5 Culus, whose armada have been cleared to invade Earth by the Galactic Federation.

The President instead takes the advice of Rick's son-in-law Jerry Smith, who ends up in an argument with the aliens' leader within ten minutes.

Inverse praised the President's depiction in "The Rickchurian Mortydate" as "a petulant manbaby who can't take criticism or disobedience" and Donald Trump stand-in compared to his "Get Schwifty" depiction, describing the character's final fight with Rick Sanchez as "the single greatest action sequence in Rick and Morty history".