What if J Edgar Hoover became President in 1960

As an independent?

Extremely unlikely.

I know you want a focus on J. Edgar Hoover Administration rather than the 1960 Presidential Election, but how he gets into office (political party and such) will shape his presidency significantly and cannot be ignored.

One person does not make a presidency and that person can’t just appear in office.
 
J. Edgar Hoover would never in a million years have given up the power he had accrued as FBI director to take a position constrained by the Constitution and public opinion. He's much happier in the shadows doing his thing out of the public eye.
 
As has been pointed out already, not only is Hoover highly unlikely to beat both of these men in the 1960 election, but he's also unlikely to seek out the Presidency period (assuming he follows the same career trajectory as IOTL). If you want to see Hoover take the commander-in-chief spot, I think it'd be more likely in the event of an extreme terror attack, or some kind of Constitutional crisis. He wasn't a man who was interested in public opinion (or really anyone's opinions but his own), but he was certainly a man of action, and if faced with a situation where his country demanded a strongman to act, I have no doubt he'd fill that void. With that having been said, any situation with Hoover in command is going to be nasty. He'll make Nixon's shenanigans look like child's play, quite frankly. Suspension of civil rights, secret police (which he had effectively turned the FBI into anyways), martial law, etc.
 
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