They are commonplace for presidents of other countries, especially in Latin America: [URL]http://www.jjmccullough.com/pictessays_leaders_pres.php[/URL] See http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=137981 for a discussion of whether the US should have one (not surprisingly the overwhelming majority answer is No).
Obviously, one could not be adopted today. It would make the US look too much like a "banana republic." (Remember the ridicule of Nixon's short-lived "Ruritanian" uniforms for the White House guards. http://cdn.billmoyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/white-house-secret-service-uniforms-nixon.jpg) But is there any time it could have been adopted? Maybe at the very first inauguration (of George Washington)? True, some would see therm as too monarchic or militaristic; but there were some people who wanted more pomp in the presidency those days. (Some wanted a title like "His Excellency." Just calling him the president seemed too common; as John Adams observed, "there were presidents of fire companies and of a cricket club." Of course others, who thought that any title not provided in the Constitution was inappropriate, ridiculed the plump first vice-president as "His Rotundity.")
Obviously, one could not be adopted today. It would make the US look too much like a "banana republic." (Remember the ridicule of Nixon's short-lived "Ruritanian" uniforms for the White House guards. http://cdn.billmoyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/white-house-secret-service-uniforms-nixon.jpg) But is there any time it could have been adopted? Maybe at the very first inauguration (of George Washington)? True, some would see therm as too monarchic or militaristic; but there were some people who wanted more pomp in the presidency those days. (Some wanted a title like "His Excellency." Just calling him the president seemed too common; as John Adams observed, "there were presidents of fire companies and of a cricket club." Of course others, who thought that any title not provided in the Constitution was inappropriate, ridiculed the plump first vice-president as "His Rotundity.")