President is a shedding game with a social twist: the order you finish in gives you a rank, and those ranks carry into the next hand as a card-trading advantage. The winner keeps winning and the loser keeps struggling, which is exactly the joke. A hand takes about 5 minutes.

What You Need

Players: 4-8. It works best with five or more.
Deck: One standard 52-card deck. Add a second deck above about seven players.
Extras: Nothing, though some groups use seat positions to mark the ranks.

Key Terms

Rank order: 3 is lowest and 2 is highest: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2.
Lead: The card or set that starts a round, setting how many cards everyone must play.
Pass: Declining to play. Once you pass, you are out until the round ends.
Round: Continues until everyone but one player has passed. That player leads the next round.
President / Scum: The titles for finishing first and last.

Setup

Deal the whole deck out clockwise. Some players may get one card more than others - that is fine.
For the first hand, whoever holds the 3♣ leads it. In later hands, the President leads first.
From the second hand onward, trade cards by rank: Scum gives their two best cards to the President, who returns any two cards they do not want. Vice-Scum and Vice-President swap one card the same way.

How to Play

The leader plays a single card, a pair, a triple, or four of a kind, face up.
Going clockwise, each player must play the same number of cards of a higher rank, or pass.
Passing puts you out of that round even if you could have played later.
When everyone else has passed, the round ends. All the played cards are set aside and the last player to play leads a fresh round with anything they like.
Play until your hand is empty. The order players run out sets the ranks: first out is President, second is Vice-President, and the last person still holding cards is the Scum.

Scoring & Winning

There is no running score in the basic game. Each hand simply re-sorts everyone's rank.
If you want a scored game, award points by finishing position - for example 2 for President, 1 for Vice-President, 0 for the middle, and -1 for Scum - and play a set number of hands.
The real reward is the card trade at the start of the next hand, which makes staying President considerably easier.

Example

The leader plays a pair of 7s. The next player must play a higher pair, such as two 9s, or pass. Once three players in a row pass, the last person to play leads whatever they like.

Variations

2s clear: playing a 2 immediately ends the round and you lead again.
Bombs: four of a kind beats anything, even a set of a different size.
Doubles skip: matching the previous play exactly skips the next player instead of being illegal.
Revolution: if four of a kind is played, the rank order flips for the rest of the hand.

Tips for New Players

Break your hand into groups before you play. Four 5s are worth far more as a bomb than as singles.
Passing on purpose is a real tactic - let others burn their high cards, then take control of the next round.
If you are Scum, your two best cards are gone before you start. Play for second-to-last and work your way up.