Taft's domestic agenda emphasized trust-busting, civil service reform, strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission, improving the performance of the postal service, and passage of the Sixteenth Amendment. He is the only person to have served as President and Chief Justice of the United States.

Taft sought to further the economic development of underdeveloped nations in Latin America and Asia through “Dollar Diplomacy”. However, Taft often alienated his own key constituencies, and was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for a second term in the presidential election of 1912.