Roosevelt and Taft political cartoon
Taft won the election, but TR would soon fall out with the successor he had chosen. Although, Taft summoned more trusts than Roosevelt had (77-41), as a lawyer and judge he believed any such actions to be the role of the judiciary. Roosevelt was disappointed and baffled at the fact that Taft basically had a do-nothing administration, and Taft’s conservative rhetoric had little in common with Teddy’s heated defense of the consumer and government for the people. Nevertheless, Teddy also resented the Taft government’s attempt to break up the U.S. Steel, whose purchase of its foremost and main competitor Roosevelt had personally approved in 1907.