Best and Worst US Presidents

This is not based on my personal opinion. If it were, I'd probably rank Truman, Wilson, Jackson and Kennedy all lower. I'd rank Obama, Polk, and Clinton higher. I'd probably put Hoover lower, Grant higher, I might try to find room for Reagan and Bush Jr. in the bottom quartile (Bush Jr. only narrowly avoids inclusion, presently ranked 32nd just above Nixon), and if possible I'd figure out a way to rank Trump lower than 44th. He so richly deserves his placement here but I feel simply being last is inadequate.

"Based on aggregate polling data of conservative, liberal, and centrist presidential historians, 1948-2018"

Arthur Meier Schlesinger, notable historian of Harvard, polled 75 historians for rankings from 1948 and 1962. His son conducted a similar poll in 1992.
The Chicago Tribune conducted a poll in 1982 of 49 historians.
The Siena Research Institute of Siena College has conducted surveys of historians in 1982, 1990, 1994, 2002 and 2010.
Other polls were conducted by the Wall Street Journal, C-SPAN, the American Political Science Association, etc. You can see the whole list here

The APSA did the most recent poll, and the only one to include Trump. They had scholars self-identify as Republican, Democrat, or Independent. Even amongst Republican scholars, Trump was ranked 40th out of 44 presidents. He was dead last amongst Democrats, and by Independents (who skew conservative and libertarian) he was ranked 43rd.

don't be so lazy.

If something as objective and non-partisan as the data presented here seems biased to you, which is taken from many different polls of hundreds of different presidential historians of all different political persuasions, then probably you are yourself biased.

well, gee... thanks. Sincerely. When I'm not posting just to show appreciation for the quiz author, or to entertain myself or make someone laugh... particularly the posts that get a bit "ranty"... my main aim is usually to encourage people to look things up and learn something. This is the reason that I post things that fly in the face of conventional wisdom; not to try and offend anybody but just to inspire those reading to ask questions and think for themselves. Happy to hear it worked at least once.

Not according to any honest person who knows what they're talking about. Even amongst self-identified Republican historians, Trump is ranked 40th of 44 presidents. This is not fake news. It's reality.

Not at all! Some are racists. Some are Nazis. Some are evil plutocrats or Russian despots who view Trump as a useful idiot. And then the rest are some combination of stupid, ignorant, or extremely confused. I think that covers everything.

Though the comment you are replying to doesn't say smart people understand that Trump is the worst president in history, it says that those who know what they're talking about understand that. There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity. As for those who know what they're talking about, I'm speaking to presidential historians in this case, including self-identified conservative and Republican historians who rank Trump in the bottom 4 of all time.

There are also farmers who voted for him because he promised to repeal the estate tax. Though many of these people don't "like" Trump, they just voted for him. And many of them aren't going to vote for him again in 2020 as he hasn't kept his promise and his misguided and ignorant trade war with China has been disastrous for the farm belt.

I think if they conducted a new poll after Helsinki even Republican historians would have to concede that Trump is the worst president in history.

What do you think a better clue would be? The Apollo program was dedicated to Kennedy; though actually you're wrong, JFK was not the first to conceive of the idea. He just made it a publicly stated priority.

eh... in my subjective opinion Kennedy did more to inflame and destabilize that situation than to solve it. But maybe I could change the clue to "slept with Marilyn Monroe."

I changed it to include something about civil rights

From number 44? The most impressive turn around in history? Well if he can pull it off, great. I'd be rooting for him.

Hey in the last Siena poll he was voted 42nd! Moving on up!

I didn't make this list. Are you a presidential historian?

Data on a new Siena poll has been added to the Wikipedia page. Obama has moved out of the top quartile from 11th to 13th place, and Polk has moved up to the 11th position. Everything else is exactly the same. I'm going to the leave the quiz as is until there are some more significant changes.

and now Wikipedia has removed the aggregate column from their page... that sucks... I guess I could still update this when new polls are added but I would have to average all the data together myself now. :P

correct

I feel like the farther we get from the Trump presidency the harder it will be to believe just how precedent-shatteringly awful he was.

I think it's pretty telling which presidents are ranked lower than Harrison. Harrison got sick, did almost nothing after assuming office, and died a month later. To be ranked lower than him you would have to be actively hurting the nation and its interests; basically you are doing a worse job than if the office were simply left completely vacant. Only six presidents in history have earned this distinction.