After his predecessor died, Theodore Roosevelt, at 42-years-old becomes the youngest president of the United States, ushering in the industrial age in 1901. He moves into the Executive Mansion, nicknaming it the White House with six energetic kids like himself, becoming the first celebrity president. But America still has a turbulent history, especially with racial tension in the South. In his first term, TR violates the racial etiquette when he invites Booker T. Washington to dinner, upsetting white supremacists. Then he turns his attention to capitalists like J.P. Morgan's railroad monopoly by taxing them and helps resolve the coal miners strike, establishing a worker's union before people run out of coal for the winter. Through the press, TR also takes on J.D. Rockefeller who has the power and money to influence members of Congress. He builds the Panama Canal to establish quicker trade routes. For his second term, TR uses the bully pulpit to propose his Square Deal for equality for everyone. He exposes the unsanitary meat industry and saves millions of acres of forest reserve by creating national parks. After not wanting to run for a third term in 1908, TR hand-picks William H. Taft to be his successor if he sticks to his policies. At age 50, TR travels to Africa and Europe, but when he comes home in 1910, he misses the power of the presidency as Taft is doing a terrible job. TR becomes a radical progressive with reforms on 8-hour workdays, medical insurance, and supporting women's suffrage.

After seeing the Oval Office built, he decides to run again in 1912, this time with the people's support. But when he didn't get the Republican nomination, he formed the Progressive Party or the Bull Moose Party, made up of middle class and feminists. TR gave an 84-minute speech after getting shot in the chest by an assailant, with only his steel eyeglass case saving his life. But Democrat Woodrow Wilson ran as a more extreme progressive and won by a landslide.