Who can become a US president?

Anyone who wants to run for President of the United States of America will need to meet three main criteria.
These are:

• They should be a natural-born citizen of the United States.
• A resident of the United States for 14 years.
• And at least 35 years old.

A Natural Born Citizen is someone born with US citizenship. This includes any child born “in” the United States, the children of United States citizens born abroad, and those born abroad of one citizen parent.

The legal requirements for presidential candidates have remained the same since 1789, the year George Washington accepted the presidency.

Individual states did not introduce significant relevant legislation until Barack Obama, the first non-white President in American history, was elected in 2008.

During the 2008 presidential election campaign, the controversy generated by various conspiracy theorists asserted that Obama was not a natural-born US citizen, as mandated by the Constitution, and thus was ineligible to be President of the United States.

This prompted several state legislatures, including Iowa, New Hampshire and Connecticut, to consider legislation aimed at requiring future candidates to show proof of presidential eligibility before being granted ballot access in their state.