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Josh Clanton (aka. The President) is the president of the United States as of 2023 in Perfect Dark. In the course of the game, Trent Easton and fellow conspirators attempt to kidnap him and replace him with a clone that they can control, in order to acquire the Pelagic II legally, after the President refused to turn the ship over to them in the first place.
In-Game Description
The President as seen the the N64 version of Perfect Dark
Name: The U.S. President
Age: 50 years
Race: Human (male)
A highly educated, shrewd African-American who is trying to do what is right but is surrounded by people like Trent Easton. He believes he has Trent under control after refusing the request for the loan of the Pelagic II to the dataDyne Corp. Perceived as being easily led by the majority of political commentators, which is perhaps unfair.
Role in Plot
The President made his debut on Air Force One.
He officially declined the NSA's numerous request for the government's deep-sea exploration vessel, Pelagic II; Unbeknownst that Joanna Dark has secretly boarded the plane, masquerading as one of the cabin crew.
When she eventually entered the president's cabin, the man first didn't believe her words - until she showed him the recording of the meeting, she did with the CamSpy, back during the G5 Building operation.
Convinced of Datadyne's plot, the President agreed to allow Joanna evacuate him off the plane but the NSA was swift, to take matters in their own hands, by sending a Skedar Transport to dispatch teams to eliminate him. Aided by his security teams, Joanna was able to get the president to his escape pod before dealing with Easton's men.
The pod landed on a remote island, off the coast of Canada; The same island on which the plane, the Skedar Transport and Elvis' ship crashed landed upon. He was quickly captured, and held captive, by Trent Easton while his men began searching the wilderness for Joanna but that didn't stop the agent who managed to find the two, hiding out in a cave. Trent escaped, leaving the president to her care. They then stayed with Elvis, and his ship, until a Carrington Institute rescue team arrived.
With the president back at the White House, he would be expecting the Institute for a hearing and official government backing to its efforts against Datadyne.
Trivia
- At the time of the original Perfect Dark's release, he was then only a parody of the often-used fictional concept of a black president. Eight years after Perfect Dark was released, Barack Obama became the first real-life African-American president, and Perfect Dark's president was looked back on as a sort of prophetic doppleganger (the two share some vocal accents and personality traits).