Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States of America, serving between 1901 and 1909. Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency after the assassination of President the time, William McKinley. President Roosevelt was among the most visible progressives of his era because of his ability to manage domestic and foreign affairs with monumental results by expanding the executive power of government. Square Deal As the primary means of supporting America's collars blue, Roosevelt's policies were primarily aimed at fighting corruption and big business. He developed a program called the Square Deal aimed at the American people to raise their standard of living and hand over control to trusts or heavyweight dominant corporations. Trusts were technically not legal under the Sherman Act of 1890. An attempt to merge corporate interests to create a monopoly on particular products and eliminate competition. The main points of the Square Deal were to evaluate the problems associated with economic consolidation in order to identify which companies were good or bad. Most corporations attacked him and called him a socialist, but he passionately disapproved of the accusations as well as the tenets of Marxism. In truth, he never looked down on big business, but he found that the trust had, in one way or another, improved the standard of living for almost all Americans in the second half of the 19th century. However, he never liked the power trusts because the Americans had very little control over them. Still, he was uncomfortable with the idea of ​​giving workers too much power. Square Deal policies attempted to balance the two. His first act and test of expansion of executive power took place during the great anthracite coal strike when eastern miners......middle of paper structures......c and d other objects of historical or scientific interest owned by the federal government as national monuments. National parks have been established in conjunction with the National Forest Service throughout the United States for conservation and recreation purposes. These actions were opposed by Western settlers and members of Congress who planned to use the set aside lands, but also by Indians who were forced to stop hunting and fishing. However, settlers were happy with the Reclamation Act of 1902, which set aside funds to irrigate uninhabitable and previously dry tracts of land. The expansion of executive influence proved successful for Roosevelt and future presidents. President Nixon in Vietnam, President Regan during the Cold War, and President Obama were all able to exert a unique influence that began largely during the presidency of President Roosevelt..