“

I, [name], do solemnly acknowledge that I do not fully understand the consequences of the power I am about to assume. I am a human being—limited in knowledge, subject to bias, capable of grave error, and certain to make decisions whose harm I will not foresee and may never fully comprehend.

No election, credential, or office has made me equal to the complexity of what I have been asked to govern. I do not possess the wisdom this role demands. No one does. No one ever has.

I accept this office not as evidence of my competence but as a responsibility I am inherently unequipped to fulfill perfectly, and I commit to surrounding myself with people who will tell me when I am wrong—especially when I am most convinced I am right.

The citizens I serve—all of them, including those I disagree with most—are my countrymen, and I owe them not my certainty but my honesty.

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I swear this oath knowing I will fail portions of it, and I ask the American people to hold me to it anyway.”