The United States order of precedence is an advisory document maintained by the Ceremonials Division of the Office of the Chief of Protocol of the United States which lists the ceremonial order, or relative preeminence, for domestic and foreign government officials (military and civilian) at diplomatic, ceremonial, and social events within the United States and abroad. The list is used to mitigate miscommunication and embarrassment in diplomacy, and offer a distinct and concrete spectrum of preeminence for ceremonies. Often the document is used to advise diplomatic and ceremonial event planners on seating charts and order of introduction. Former presidents, vice presidents, first ladies, second ladies, and secretaries of state and retired Supreme Court justices are also included in the list.
The order is established by the president, through the Office of the Chief of Staff, and is maintained by the State Department's Office of the Chief of Protocol. It is only used to indicate ceremonial protocol and has no legal standing; it does not reflect the presidential line of succession or the co-equal status of the branches of government under the Constitution. The Office of the Chief of Protocol published an updated order of precedence in February 2022.United States Department of State
List Except as otherwise noted, positions in the list are from the following source. Details are accurate
President of the United States (Donald Trump) Vice President of the United States (JD Vance) Governor of a state – when in own state Speaker of the House of Representatives (Mike Johnson) Chief Justice of the United States (John Roberts) Former presidents of the United States or their widows/widowers in italics; if necessary (by seniority of assuming office): Bill Clinton (January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001) George W. Bush (January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009) Barack Obama (January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017)
Joe Biden (January 20, 2021 – January 20, 2025) Former vice presidents of the United States or their widows/widowers in italics; if necessary (by seniority of assuming office): Dan Quayle (January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993) Al Gore (January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001) Lynne Cheney (January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009) Mike Pence (January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021) Kamala Harris (January 20, 2021 – January 20, 2025) American ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary to foreign governments – when at post American ambassadors, permanent representatives or representatives to international organizations who hold chief of mission authority – when at post American chargé d'affaires ad interim – when at post Secretary of State (Marco Rubio) President, United Nations General Assembly – when in session (Khalilur Rahman) Secretary-General of the United Nations – when at the United Nations (António Guterres) President, United Nations General Assembly – when not in session Ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary of foreign diplomatic missions to the United States (in order of presentation of credentials to the president of the United States) Associate justices of the Supreme Court (ranked by date of appointment): Clarence Thomas (October 18, 1991) Samuel Alito (January 31, 2006) Sonia Sotomayor (August 8, 2009) Elena Kagan (August 7, 2010) Neil Gorsuch (April 8, 2017) Brett Kavanaugh (October 6, 2018) Amy Coney Barrett (October 27, 2020) Ketanji Brown Jackson (June 30, 2022) Retired chief justices of the United States (ranked by date of appointment; currently none) Retired associate justices of the Supreme Court, unless they resigned (ranked by date of appointment): Anthony Kennedy (February 18, 1988 – July 31, 2018) Stephen Breyer (August 3, 1994 – June 30, 2022) The Cabinet (other than Secretary of State), ranked according to the date of establishment of the department, as added by the president, as follows: Secretary of the Treasury (Scott Bessent) Secretary of Defense (Pete Hegseth) Attorney General (Todd Blanche) Secretary of the Interior (Doug Burgum) Secretary of Agriculture (Brooke Rollins) Secretary of Commerce (Howard Lutnick) Secretary of Labor (Keith Sonderling) Secretary of Health and Human Services (Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Scott Turner) Secretary of Transportation (Sean Duffy) Secretary of Energy (Chris Wright) Secretary of Education (Linda McMahon) Secretary of Veterans Affairs (Doug Collins) Secretary of Homeland Security (Markwayne Mullin) White House chief of staff (Susie Wiles) Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency (Lee Zeldin) Director, Office of Management and Budget (Russell Vought) United States trade representative (Jamieson Greer) Ambassador to the United Nations (Mike Waltz) Administrator, Small Business Administration (Kelly Loeffler) Director of National Intelligence (Jay Clayton) Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (John Ratcliffe) President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate (Chuck Grassley) Senate majority leader (John Thune) Senate minority leader (Chuck Schumer) Senate majority whip (John Barrasso) Senate minority whip (Dick Durbin) Senators (by length of service; if the same, by the state's date of admission into the Union or alphabetically by state) Governors of states – when outside their own states (relative precedence among governors, all of whom are outside their own state, is determined by each state's date of admission into the Union or alphabetically by state) Governor of Delaware (Matt Meyer) Governor of Pennsylvania (Josh Shapiro) Governor of New Jersey (Mikie Sherrill) Governor of Georgia (Brian Kemp) Governor of Connecticut (Ned Lamont) Governor of Massachusetts (Maura Healey) Governor of Maryland (Wes Moore) Governor of South Carolina (Henry McMaster) Governor of New Hampshire (Kelly Ayotte) Governor of Virginia (Abigail Spanberger) Governor of New York (Kathy Hochul) Governor of North Carolina (Josh Stein) Governor of Rhode Island (Daniel McKee) Governor of Vermont (Phil Scott) Governor of Kentucky (Andy Beshear) Governor of Tennessee (Bill Lee) Governor of Ohio (Mike DeWine) Governor of Louisiana (Jeff Landry) Governor of Indiana (Mike Braun) Governor of Mississippi (Tate Reeves) Governor of Illinois (J. B. Pritzker) Governor of Alabama (Kay Ivey) Governor of Maine (Janet Mills) Governor of Missouri (Mike Kehoe) Governor of Arkansas (Sarah Huckabee Sanders) Governor of Michigan (Gretchen Whitmer) Governor of Florida (Ron DeSantis) Governor of Texas (Greg Abbott) Governor of Iowa (Kim Reynolds) Governor of Wisconsin (Tony Evers) Governor of California (Gavin Newsom) Governor of Minnesota (Tim Walz) Governor of Oregon (Tina Kotek) Governor of Kansas (Laura Kelly) Governor of West Virginia (Patrick Morrisey) Governor of Nevada (Joe Lombardo) Governor of Nebraska (Jim Pillen) Governor of Colorado (Jared Polis) Governor of North Dakota (Kelly Armstrong) Governor of South Dakota (Larry Rhoden) Governor of Montana (Greg Gianforte) Governor of Washington (Bob Ferguson) Governor of Idaho (Brad Little) Governor of Wyoming (Mark Gordon) Governor of Utah (Spencer Cox) Governor of Oklahoma (Kevin Stitt) Governor of New Mexico (Michelle Lujan Grisham) Governor of Arizona (Katie Hobbs) Governor of Alaska (Mike Dunleavy) Governor of Hawaii (Josh Green) House majority leader (Steve Scalise) House minority leader (Hakeem Jeffries) House majority whip (Tom Emmer) House minority whip (Katherine Clark) Members of the House of Representatives (by length of service; if the same, by the states's date of admission into the Union or alphabetically by state) Delegates or resident commissioners to the House of Representatives (non-voting members) from Territory of American Samoa, District of Columbia, Territory of Guam, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Virgin Islands of the United States (by length of service) Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia (January 3, 1991) Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa (January 3, 2015) Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands (January 3, 2015) James Moylan of Guam (January 3, 2023) Pablo Hernández Rivera of Puerto Rico (January 3, 2025) Kimberlyn King-Hinds of the Northern Mariana Islands (January 3, 2025) Governors of Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Territory of Guam, Territory of American Samoa, United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (ordered by territory's date of entering U.S. jurisdiction or alphabetically by territory): Governor of Puerto Rico (Jenniffer González-Colón) Governor of Guam (Lou Leon Guerrero) Governor of American Samoa (Pula Nikolao Pula) Governor of the US Virgin Islands (Albert Bryan) Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands (David M. Apatang) Assistants to the president: National Security Advisor (Marco Rubio) Counselors to the president (ranked by date of appointment): Peter Navarro (January 20, 2025) White House deputy chiefs of staff (ranked by date of appointment): Dan Scavino (January 20, 2025) Stephen Miller (January 20, 2025) Beau Harrison (January 20, 2025) Richard Walters (June 2026) Chief of Staff to the spouse of the president (Hayley Harrison) Chief of Staff to the vice president (Jacob Reses) Senior advisors to the president (ordered by date of appointment): Massad Boulos (January 20, 2025) Remaining assistants to the president or special presidential envoys who previously held Cabinet rank (ordered by date of appointment; excluding those already listed above)
Steven Cheung (January 20, 2025) Joshua Fisher (January 20, 2025) Vince Haley (January 20, 2025) Kevin Hassett (January 20, 2025) Karoline Leavitt (January 20, 2025) Will Scharf (January 20, 2025) Steve Witkoff (January 20, 2025) Ross Worthington (January 20, 2025) Meghan Bauer (November 2025) Walker Barrett (December 31, 2025) Jarrod Agen (2025–26) James Braid (2025–26) Tom Homan (2025–26) Other counselors to the president (ranked by date of appointment; currently none): Other senior advisors to the president (ranked by date of appointment; currently none): Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (Pierre Yared) (Acting) Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (Katherine Scarlett) Presidential Science Advisor and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (Michael Kratsios) Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Sara A. Carter) Chief of Protocol (Monica Crowley) – when with the president or for a White House event Ambassadors from the United States to international organizations who do not hold Chief of Mission authority (when at post) Chargés d'affaires to the United States (ordered by assumption of office) Former secretaries of state (ordered by term): James Baker (January 20, 1989 – August 23, 1992) Condoleezza Rice (January 26, 2005 – January 20, 2009) Hillary Clinton (January 21, 2009 – February 1, 2013) John Kerry (February 1, 2013 – January 20, 2017) Rex Tillerson (February 1, 2017 – March 31, 2018) Mike Pompeo (April 26, 2018 – January 20, 2021) Antony Blinken (January 26, 2021 – January 20, 2025) Former members of the U.S. Cabinet (ordered by term, who do not already rank higher by virtue of another office) Carla Anderson Hills (March 10, 1975) F. David Mathews (August 8, 1975) John A. Knebel (November 4, 1976) W. Michael Blumenthal (January 23, 1977) Joseph A. Califano Jr. (January 25, 1977) Ray Marshall (January 27, 1977) John R. Block (January 23, 1981) Donald P. Hodel (November 5, 1982) Elizabeth Dole (February 7, 1983) William Bennett (February 6, 1985) John S. Herrington (February 7, 1985) Edwin Meese (February 25, 1985) James H. Burnley IV (December 2, 1987) Nicholas F. Brady (September 15, 1988) Samuel K. Skinner (February 6, 1989) Louis W. Sullivan (March 1, 1989) Lynn M. Martin (February 22, 1991) Lamar Alexander (March 22, 1991)