I’ve spent a day eating like every living US president. The best diets have surprised me.

• I recreated over 150 recipes from politicians before I started spending a day eating just like them.
• The White House diets of the six living US presidents are wildly different and sometimes shocking.
• George W. Bush had my favorite daily eating habits, while Donald Trump had my least favorite.

Politicians, just like the rest of us, have to eat.

Occasionally, politicians release their own recipes carefully crafted to fit their brand and background. I started Cookin’ with Congress to explore those recipes, recreating and tasting these dishes — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

After spending a few years getting to know politicians through the homespun recipes (like Mitch McConnell’s flavorless Hoppin’ John or Mark Warner’s sopping wet Tuna Melt), I began to wonder what the most powerful people in America ate when they weren’t being monitored.

I started at the top, diving into community cookbooks, archival articles, news footage, and excellent books on the topic. Eventually, I discovered the daily diets of every living president: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.

It wasn’t enough to simply learn about their food preferences — I had to eat like each of them, too. After creating a diet inspired by the knowledge available to me, I did.

Here’s my highly subjective ranking of the daily eating habits of our living US presidents, from worst to best.