Dwight D. Eisenhower's Biggest Regret As President May Surprise You

The job of the President of the United States is a stressful one, to say the least. The man or woman who holds that job is, by some measures, the most powerful person in the free world. Further, on any one day during their administration, the POTUS must juggle multiple matters that require attention, from working with lawmakers to pass key legislation to managing multiple departments (and thousands of employees) in the executive branch.

Given the extremely fast-paced and demanding nature of the president's job, it's perhaps not unexpected that some of the decisions they make will be the wrong ones. Indeed, more than one president has lived to regret a decision they made, according to Ranker. And Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president, decided while in office that would have repercussions decades later. He would later call the decision "the biggest damn-fool mistake I ever made."

Back in 1953, President Eisenhower found himself with a vacancy on the Supreme Court following the death of then-Chief Justice Fred Vinson, according to PBS. With the choice of either appointing an existing justice to Vinson's role (and then nominating that person's replacement) or nominating someone directly to the chief justice's chair, the 34th president chose the latter and nominated Earl Warren to the vacancy. At the time, the move made sense: Both men were steadfast Republicans, and Eisenhower said that Warren "represents the kind of political, economic, and social thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court."

However, the "Warren Court," as it would come to be known, presided over many liberal decisions, including the one that formally brought an end to mandated prayers in public schools. Notably, the Washington and Lee Law Review called the move nothing short of a "constitutional revolution." Eisenhower, for his part, would go on to regret appointing Warren. In addition to calling himself a "damn fool" for making the appointment, he also purportedly referred to Warren as "that dumb son of a b*tch," according to The Atlantic.