Fan Retrospectives: The Chaotic In-Universe Politics of the MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been an ongoing saga for about 17 years running. Apart from the the Avengers' adventures, it is really interesting to see how their superheroics affects their in-universe politics and just how absolutely crazy it is.

When you take a step back and look at their line of US Presidents, one has to wonder what is the how the US government still functions as well as it does. Not an exaggeration, but every US president in the MCU had momentous disruptions under their administrations that was full of destruction of major historical landmarks, bouts of fascism, and multiple high-ranking officials being revealed as traitors or killers. 

President Ellis' Administration

 

 

2013's Iron Man 3 introduces our first President of the United States: Matthew Ellis. Now Ellis himself is not anymore corrupt than a typical politician. Yes, he has made shady back-alley deals to not punish some big-money oil tycoons for white collar crimes, but that's par for the course for inappropriate use of the executive powers as any politician. What is more shocking is how there was an entire terrorist conspiracy to publicly kill him orchestrated by-of all people-his Vice President.

Yes, poor President Ellis not only was kidnapped by the movie's villain Aldrich Killian, but Air Force One blew up in the process. Then we discover that Killian's machinations was aided by the Vice President. After Iron Man stopped the assassination attempt, he also presumably brought the Vice President to justice. Can you imagine being a citizen and reading about how the VP conspired to kill POTUS? That is a major disruption of US politics right there that would throw into question how much one can trust the executive branch of government.

Add on top of that, the public's trust in Congress must also be in upheaval after the ending of 2014's Captain America: The Winter Solider revealed that an acting US Senator was a Hydra agent and also publicly arrested. That is not to even mention how a major international intelligence/ law enforcement headquarters was blown up in that movie. I'm referring to SHIELD's headquarters named the Triskelion getting demolished.

Granted, I don't think SHIELD is a US agency, but an international one. The movies never made it clear, although it was an international organization in the comics. But even if it is not strictly an American agency, seeing the headquarters of a security branch get blown up via flying Helicarriers crashing into them would be a huge blow to the public's confidence and safety. It would be like if during 9-11, the terrorist successfully destroyed the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.

How shaken the public's trust would be after discovering their security is a secret Nazi organization and then completely gone? It is bad enough when any building is destroyed in a heavily populated area. But if that building was also one of the main security hubs, the sense of safety would be so much more devastating.

Also, it's really funny to consider is that under Ellis' administration, they branded American icon Captain America a war criminal not once- but twice. First in Winter Solider, then in 2016's Civil War. In fact, I don't think they dropped the charges against Captain America until 2018 when Thanos snapped away half the population. At that point, one assumes that the government was too busy handling the population crisis to even enforce the law against Cap.

It is not clear if President Ellis was a one or two-term president. But suffice to say, you can imagine that he left office with a legacy of poor government oversight, chaos, and steep drops in public's confidence in their safety.

 

President Riston's Administration 

Which brings us to the next (named) POTUS: President James Riston. Riston only appeared in 2023's Secret Invasion television series where shape-shifting alien Skrulls infiltrated government's around the world in key positions in a plot to take over Earth. He had similar problems to his presidential predecessor. Such as, Riston was subjected to two near-death assassination attempts while in office when the Skrulls attacked him. He nearly died in two separate occasions if it wasn't for Nick Fury's help. Also like Ellis, he had compromised White House staff, such as a Skrull impersonating his security advisor James Rhodes. Not to mention, the Skrulls' machinations manipulated him into a near-war with Russia. Tension upon tension in the government.

But what is most striking is how these attacks heavily influenced his policies moving forward. The previous POTUS seemed to have taken things in stride after he was nearly betrayed and killed. But Riston went on national TV quickly to declare open war on any aliens on Earth. His speech caused a worldwide riot, which led to the the British Prime Minister getting assassinated. What is worst, Riston's speech spread unnecessary panic and laid seeds of distrust and paranoia in every single citizen to attack each other. It would be amazing that America is still a unified country after a few years of vigilante humans killing fellow humans. It'd practically be the Purge.

This blowback led to Nick Fury predicting that Riston would lose his second term. And Fury was right about that. After two consecutive administrations full of near-death experiences, traitorous government officials, and continually declining in public trust... the MCU gets a normal, boring President.

Nah, just kidding. Their most recent US presidential administration is the craziest yet with the election of Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross.

President Ross' Administration

Fair warning, the last piece has massive spoilers for 2025's Captain America: Brave New World.

The start of Brave New World depicts Ross getting newly-elected despite all odds. This includes a very public rant where he angrily kicked over the podium on live TV. He also had a public crusade against the Hulk that caused millions, if not billions of dollars in military damages.

They say that the president's first 100 days in office will set the tone for the rest of their presidency. So... what happened in President Ross' first 100 days?

Sam Wilson as Captain America discovers a cabal of brainwashed government officials within the White House. Ross barely survives an assassination attempt by one of the brainwashed victims. Yes, more concerns about how the government officials cannot even be trusted not to kill their own president. That, like, should be the bare minimum if you took a job in the White House: Try not to kill your president. And we've seen this play out across three different presidents.

President Ross also almost sends America to war Japan. Like, dangerously close. Even closer than the Cuban Missile Crisis. The US and Japanese naval fleet were at a standoff in international waters where they actually started launching missiles at each other. Luckily, Captain America literally stopped the missiles from destroying their targets and the two countries narrowly averted an international conflict.

This dispute so weird for so many reasons. Japan and America have been allies for many decades. Why were they the two countries that came close to a war? But the craziest part is that Japan does not even have a formal military fleet. So, ironically the most unrealistic thing about that scene that features a man in a winged-bird costume battling fighter jets is that Japan has a ready-to-go Naval fleet that rivals America's.

But of course the biggest highlight (nadir?) of Ross' presidency is when he turns into a friggin' Hulk in front of the White House press corps. Then we see him attack- potentially kill- his own Secret Service.

His rampage as a Hulk pretty much demolishes the White House- destroying yet another symbol of American strength and security. When Captain America finally talks him down, Ross actually goes to prison. Which is so crazy to think that a sitting-American president would go to prison within his first year.

What would the optics of a president going to jail look like to the public? Not to mention that the President himself was directly responsible for the destruction of the White House and damage to the Washington Monument. What tremendous disruption would POTUS going to prison mid-administration cause to the political landscape? How would the remaining administration cabinet have to scramble to do their jobs effectively? Would they even continue to have jobs or will Congress have to investigate all of their backgrounds to make sure they didn't have illegal links to the president? How would the rival political party react?

I imagine moving forward, every time Congress gets into a dispute over a spending bill, they're going just end each argument with, "Yeah? At least my party's president didn't turn into a rampaging Hulk!"

Conclusion

Needless to say, after a string of disorderly presidential administrations, the MCU's American political system should be in shambles and-honestly-the country should be reduced to anarchy. There should be zero trust in anyone in a political office. Zero trust with their fellow citizens. And zero trust in feeling safe and secure ever again.

The point is, good luck to whoever President Ross' Vice President is to pick up the smoldering rubble of the last few administrations.

 

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