Thomas Whitmore

President Thomas Whitmore is the president of the United States and the tritagonist in the movie Independence Day, and it's sequel Independence Day: Resurgence. Before he became the recent president he was a pilot in the Gulf War and got into a fight that David started.

He is portrayed by Bill Pullman who also portrayed Dr. James Harvey in the film Casper and Captain Lone Star in the film Spaceballs.

Role in the film
The president was first seen waking up in bed with his daughter, Patricia Whitmore sleeping next to him while he is asking his wife what time is it in LA. After receiving news about the alien visitors he remained at the white house till David told him that the aliens are using the humans satellites against them and a countdown to the destruction to the cities the aliens are at. The president then ordered an evacuation after Welcome Wagon was shot down but only a few people survived or escaped the cities that got destroyed while the President and his staff escaped Washington DC's destruction via Air Force One. After hearing that the helicopter carrying his wife did not make it to the safest city Whitmore then ordered a retaliation against the attackers only to learn about the aliens shield technology and objected on a nuclear attack against the alien attackers over American soil. It was that time Davids father mentioned about Area 51 which he later learned that the Secretary of Defense mentioned Area 51 was actually real and the President ordered Air Force One to head to Area 51 where he meet Major Mitchell and Dr Okun who are in charge of Area 51. Whitmore then learned about the spaceship that they were hording was actually recovered by the government long ago and learned that the alien is an organic life form. After meeting Steven Hiller who bought an unconscious alien to the base he decided to go see Dr. Okun examining the alien only to learned the alien attacked everyone and Whitmore saw the aliens thoughts about the aliens are moving from planet to planet and after they consume every last resources from planets they head to the next planet to destroy and Earth is next.

The president then goes with the Secretary of Defense's idea of nuking the aliens only to learn that even a nuke cannot penetrate the shielded aliens. After witnessing his wife dies he then learned about Davids idea of planting a virus to the aliens mother-ship in one final attempt to save humanity and agreed to gather every last plane and pilot they can find for the final battle and use Morse code to message every squadron around the world about a worldwide counter-attack on the aliens. After giving a speech about the humans fighting for the right to survive he jumped into an F-18 and lead Eagle squadron to attack the alien spaceship that is heading to destroy Area 51. At first Whitmore's first missile failed to damage the alien ship his next shot did damage the alien ship causing a dogfight with the US Fighters and the alien attackers. Despite able to damage the alien spaceship the US Fighters are running out of missiles so they decide to attack the aliens primary weapon otherwise the aliens will wipe out Area 51. Whitmore fires his last remaining missile but he got a negative impact and his wingman Eagle 2 got shot down and the only one that can save them is Russell Casse who has one remaining missile. After Whitmore and the remaining jets "Plow the road" Russell Casse was in range and about to fire the missile only to find out that the missile was jammed. Russell Casse then told everyone to tell his children that he loved them very much then crashed his plane into the weapon causing not only the weapon to explode but took down the city sized spaceship with him. Whitmore and the remaining jet fighters then flee the exploding spaceship and told the general to spread the word about how to take out the aliens. After the alien mothership is destroyed and the earthbound aliens are defeated the president and his friends then celebrated the 4th of July in victory.

Post-War
Whitmore was reelected for a second term as president following his leadership in the War of 1996, and he remained a popular figure in both his country and the whole world long after his term ended in 2001. He was a proponent of the Earth Space Defense initiative, which he also appointed David Levinson as the ESD's civilian director, and convinced William Grey to run for president.

Following the death of Steven Hiller in the 2007 ESD Spring Expo, Whitmore became a recluse due to a decline in his mental health. This is in fact due to his traumatic experience with the captured alien in 1996 that rendered him with a mental imprint of seeing images through the aliens.

In 2016, as the world prepared to celebrate the war's 20th anniversary, President Elizabeth Lanford began the celebrations by unveiling a commissioned portrait of Whitmore to honor his 'valor and leadership to unite the world and lead humanity from its darkest day to a brighter future.

Role in the sequel
On July 4th 2016, Withmore took a tug filled with fusion bombs into a trap for the Harvester Queen, when faced with the prospect that his daughter would volunteer for the same assignment, informing her in their last conversation that, this time around, he wasn't saving the world but saving her. The explosion killed him and exposed the queen to be killed by Jake Morrison, Dylan Dubrow-Hiller and subsequent pilots.