Updated to include President Joe Biden.
Here is a list of the Mercury signs of all US Presidents. The bar chart shows the most prevalent Mercury sign among US Presidents.
The winner is Scorpio.
The Mercury sign tells us about the way a person’s mind works. Mercury reflects the way a person sees, hears, understands, and assimilates information. It shows the way we process information, and how we communicate.
It’s not surprising that, with the exception of Capricorn, all of the most prevalent signs are “fixed” signs. Scorpio, Leo, Taurus, and Aquarius are the fixed signs of the zodiac.
These are minds which can be stubborn, but reassuringly methodical and steady. Capricorn is not a fixed sign, yet it shares those qualities. It makes sense that these qualities are commonly represented among the presidents.
Only 17 US Presidents in history have not had Mercury in one of the fixed signs or Capricorn.
At the other end of the spectrum, Gemini is the least represented among Mercury signs of U.S. Presidents. Only one president in U.S. history had Mercury in Gemini: Harry S. Truman. Gemini is the changeable sign. Gemini in Mercury is a changeable mind, and while inventive and even genius, it lacks the reassuring steadiness that voters seek.
Another interesting thing to note is that only two U.S. Presidents in history had Mercury retrograde: Benjamin Harrison and Harry S. Truman. Although, Harrison’s Mercury was dignified in the sign that it rules, Virgo, and it had a harmonious trine from Jupiter which would mitigate any negative effects. Truman’s Mercury was not so lucky, and coincidentally, he is noted as the most unpopular President in US history.
List of each U.S. President’s Mercury sign:
- George Washington: Aquarius
- John Adams: Scorpio
- Thomas Jefferson: Pisces
- James Madison: Aquarius
- James Monroe: Taurus
- John Quincy Adams: Leo
- Andrew Jackson: Aries
- Martin Van Buren: Scorpio
- William Henry Harrison: Capricorn
- John Tyler: Pisces
- James K. Polk: Sagittarius
- Zachary Taylor: Capricorn
- Millard Fillmore: Sagittarius
- Franklin Pierce: Scorpio or Sagittarius
- James Buchanan: Taurus
- Abraham Lincoln: Pisces
- Andrew Johnson: Sagittarius
- Ulysses S. Grant: Aries
- Rutherford B. Hayes: Scorpio
- James A. Garfield: Scorpio
- Chester A. Arthur: Scorpio
- Grover Cleveland: Pisces
- Benjamin Harrison: Virgo
- William McKinley: Aquarius
- Theodore Roosevelt: Scorpio
- William Howard Taft: Libra
- Woodrow Wilson: Capricorn
- Warren G. Harding: Scorpio
- Calvin Coolidge: Cancer
- Herbert Hoover: Leo
- Franklin D. Roosevelt: Aquarius
- Harry S. Truman: Gemini
- Dwight D. Eisenhower: Libra
- John F. Kennedy: Taurus
- Lyndon B. Johnson: Virgo
- Richard Nixon: Capricorn
- Gerald Ford: Leo
- Jimmy Carter: Virgo
- Ronald Reagan: Capricorn
- George H. W. Bush: Taurus
- Bill Clinton: Leo
- George W. Bush: Leo
- Barack Obama: Leo
- Donald J. Trump: Cancer
- Joseph Biden: Scorpio
Notes
- The list includes all 45 U.S.A. presidents. Although Joe Biden is called the 46th president, there have actually been only 45 presidents because Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd & the 24th president. Our tally doesn’t make the mistake of including Grover Cleveland twice.
- Only 44 Mercury signs are included in the bar chart because it omits Franklin Pierce’s Mercury sign, which is either in Scorpio or Sagittarius depending on the time he was born.
- See the list of birth times that we used.