Editing Lucas Brown (section)

===Presidency===
Brown announced that he would be running for president in 2014 and subsequently won the 2016 election by a thin but sufficient margin. During the first two years of his presidency, Brown presided over a rebounding economy and proudly signed a number of tax relief bills into law, a cause he had fought extensively for during his time in the Maximusian Senate. In 2018, Brown championed military intervention in [[Lauchenoiria]] during the nation's [[Second Lauchenoirian Civil War|Civil War]]. Following the Maximusian declaration of war against and deployment of troops in Lauchenoiria in July of 2018, Maximusian forces were met with stiff resistance at [[Carville]] and [[Annatown]], leading to a drop in domestic approval of the Brown administration. Following the brutal Maximusian [[Second Battle of Carville|assault on Carville]], which resulted in Libertas Omnium Maximus being found guilty of war crimes during the 2019 [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission]], Brown issued a formal apology to the city's residents on behalf of the Maximusian government. Following the debacle in Lauchenoiria, Brown worked hard to mend fences with his political opposition and repair his public image abroad.<ref>President Brown to meet with Lauchenoirian PM Alvarez, ''The Litudinem Herald,'' https://litudinem.wixsite.com/thelitudinemherald/post/president-brown-to-meet-with-lauchenoirian-prime-minister<nowiki/>(September 17, 2019)</ref> In 2019, Brown sent a delegation led by his energy and infrastructure director, Alex Stadler, to the [[2019 Tofino Leaders Summit|Tofino Summit]] in order to diffuse political tensions between former Coalition states and [[Kerlile]]. While the Maximusian-Kerlian relationship was repaired to some degree through negotiations, the conference failed to alleviate tensions and ultimately resulted in a three month [[August 2019 Trade War|trade war]] between several participating nations. During the period of economic turbulence, Brown maintained Maximusian neutrality and preserved commercial ties with three of the four involved nations, [[Zamastan]], [[Trive]], and [[Xiomera]].<ref>Stock prices plummet in wake of economic uncertainty, ''The Litudinem Herald,'' https://litudinem.wixsite.com/thelitudinemherald/post/stock-prices-plummet-in-wake-of-economic-uncertainty<nowiki/>(August 11, 2019)</ref> This "business as usual" approach was generally well received.

Brown was reelected in [[2020 Maximusian Presidential Election|2020]], though the Conservatives lost their coalition majority in the Senate, necessitating a new big-tent legislative coalition in which tremendous political power was ceded to the [[Progressive Citizens' Party (Maximusian)|Progressives]]. Just hours after he was sworn in for a second term, [[Malvarian Liberation Front|Vulkarian terrorists]] [[1/2/20 Terror Attacks|attacked a concert]] in [[Lumeniola]] and assaulted the Maximusian embassy in [[Zamastan]] (along with a number of other sites across eight nations), necessitating a [[2020 War in Vulkaria|military response]]. Initially a champion of counterinsurgency in Vulkaria, Brown's stance on the conflict gradually soured, as did public support for the war in Libertas Omnium Maximus. Of the eleven nations involved in the military response, the Maximusian Republic was among the first to withdraw troops from Vulkaria in the late winter of 2020. After troops returned home, Brown publicly pivoted the nation's foreign policy away from direct intervention, while also expressing a disinclination toward tariffs as a means of economic protectionism. Domestically, Brown continued to push for deregulation in his second term, but was hampered by an increasingly hostile legislature. Late in his second term, Brown's non-interventionist stance was put to the test when a multipartisan effort within the [[Senate of Libertas Omnium Maximus#General Assembly|General Assembly]] to increase trade duties on imports from Xiomera following the [[Golden Blade Insurgency]] nearly succeeded, but was blocked by a handful of Conservative loyalists in October of 2023.<ref>Bizarre Senate alliance forms in support of economic sanctions against Xiomera, ''The Litudinem Herald'', https://media.idugov.com/2023/10/15/bizarre-senate-alliance-forms-in-support-of-economic-sanctions-against-xiomera/ (October 15, 2023)</ref> By 2024, polling generally indicated that the majority of Maximusians favored joining the [[Haesan|Haesanites]] and other nations in opposing Xiomeran aggressive expansion via sweeping economic sanctions.

Over the course of his eight year presidency, Brown advanced a big-tent conservative platform emphasizing deregulation and limited government. He was, and remains, a vocal proponent of nuclear power as an effective source of sustainable energy, and spearheaded the national effort to privatize and proliferate nuclear power plants across the nation. Under Brown's leadership, the national trade deficit did retract, though federal spending increased. Initially hawkish, by his second term, Brown's interventionist stance cooled, but he still signed a number of significant military spending bills during his final years in office. His prioritization of the economy led to the defunding of some welfare programs, but an uncooperative legislature generally stymied these efforts. As is custom, Brown did not run for a third term, instead throwing his support behind—and campaigning for—Conservative-candidate [[Richard Newman]], who was unable to prevail against [[Collin Lestrange]] in the [[2024 Maximusian Presidential Election]].