Best and Worst US Presidents

The metrics that the Sienna College poll of 2018 used to evaluate presidents included the following: background, imagination, integrity, intelligence, luck, willingness to take risks, ability to compromise, executive ability, leadership ability, communication ability, overall ability, party leadership, relations with Congress, (quality of) court appointments, handling of economy, executive appointments, domestic accomplishments, foreign policy accomplishments, avoiding crucial mistakes, and experts' view

Anyway, out of all of those metrics, when evaluated by historians of every political persuasion, Trump was ranked 40th-44th in every single one of them except for three. Which three?

Well, in terms of handling the economy he was ranked 39th. Still firmly in the bottom quartile of all presidents, but at least he was higher than Herbert Hoover. Still, his misuse of tariffs which it is clear he doesn't even understand how they work has done tremendous damage to the economy and he's done very little to improve it.

And, the one category where he got ranked the highest? Luck. He was ranked the 10th luckiest president in history. And I can't really argue with that. He inherited arguably the strongest economy and the longest period of uninterrupted jobs growth in US history from his predecessor, and then he had no major domestic or international crises to deal with during his first 3 years in office, in spite of his mighty efforts to create one.

In terms of executive appointments, they have been a disaster and a joke from day 1. The man appointed as Secretary of State, the chief diplomat of our nation, a former Exxon CEO. He replaced the sitting secretary of energy, a nuclear physicist, with Rick f'ing Perry who didn't even know what the department was for. He made Betsy DeVos, a woman with zero background in education and a massive conflict of interest as she runs a company that collects on student loans, the secretary of education, obviously because she was a big campaign donor. He made Scott Pruit head of the EPA - what was his qualification? Well he had sued the EPA a record number of times in Oklahoma.

I'm tired of talking about this so, in brief:

integrity: yep. Trump has zero integrity. He cares about literally nothing other than himself and is openly corrupt and criminal.

overall ability: yes. Goes without saying. It would actually be better if we had a vacant presidency. He actively harms the country with everything he does even in the rare instances where he is trying to do something good (even though he only cares about himself, he does on occasion try to do something that will benefit others - if only to help himself politically - but he inevitably fails)

So yeah, anyway. He's objectively a horrible president, and very likely the worst the country has ever seen. His executive orders are crap, they have no legal weight behind them just red meat thrown to his supporters. And minority discrimination is not = to religious freedom.

What conservative values has he embraced? Conservatives used to be all about fiscal responsibility. But Trump has EXPLODED the national deficit and debt. Under Obama the deficit shrank every year. Trump blew it up. And he managed to do this when the economy was BOOMING. Something that no president has EVER done before. We've increased the deficit in debt during depressions, recessions, and global wars... but never during an economic boom in peacetime. Yet Trump did it.

Conservatives also used to be very much against tariffs and for free trade. And I agreed with them. Tariffs and protectionism are bad for the economy and bad for capitalism. Trump has been the most tariff-happy president in US history.

Trump is pro-torture. Pro-destroying-families (as long as they're immigrant families). Pro-Russia. Pro-North Korea. Pro-dictator. He's an aspiring fascist. He is not a Conservative.

My most devout and god fearing friends recognize Trump for the total fraud, hypocrite, and moral monster that he is. And I'm glad for that. I used to be devoutly Christian myself, and even though I'm not anymore, I'd like to think that if I still were I would not be so blinded by politics that I couldn't recognize Trump ...

To address the rest of what you said: Trump did not have ups and downs. He just didn't. This is false. He never had an up in his entire administration. His approval rating *never* went above 50% (rolling aggregate through 4 years). Not once. There is not a single US president in history since we started tacking approval who achieved this feat. And most presidents who faced some serious crisis like the COVID pandemic were able to get a huge bump from this, rallying the country around unified support for a coherent strategy to save American lives or beat back a common foe. George W Bush, for instance, not generally regarded as a good president, had 90% approval after 9/11.

Re: Obama's "care"... I don't even know what you are trying to say. Are you saying that The Affordable Care Act is paid for by taxpayers? Uh... well yeah. sort of. Duh. Though the program also collects large amounts of insurance premiums that enrollees pay, so, it's not all taxpayer funded. Not like, say, the much more successful and popular programs Medicaid and Medicare.

Well... fret not. Most of those people wouldn't qualify for coverage under the ACA. Many of them would qualify for other programs such as Medicaid and Medicare Disability. But... Obama had nothing to do with those programs they existed long before he came into office and even though many Republicans privately would like to get rid of them or cut funding, most won't admit to this publicly as they are enormously popular and successful. The ACA is more aimed at people who work hard but don't have the sort of good privileged jobs that provide health insurance, but they make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, and so they end up in this awful limbo area inbetween where...

My bordeom has dissipated. Going to make the rest of this quick. Trump didn't build crap. He stole billions of dollars from more worthwhile projects, illegally, and managed to get 300 km of "barrier" constructed, not a proper wall. and FYI that's about 10% of the length of the border. Not very impressive. Trump did ban people from coming into the country from several countries outright (including legal residents at least at first and in some cases). And this was stupid and heartless and made no sense.

Are these people all liberals now? They include many lifelong Republicans. Many prominent Conservative voices. Several Republican party leaders including former presidents, former presidential nominees, former RNC chairs, and several who held office as Republicans. Look up what some of them have had to say about Donald Trump.

But you're going to dismiss them and believe Trump? A guy who has lied 20,000 times since taking office. A guy who was a Democrat 12 years ago? You think he represents good conservative values? And everyone else is just biased?

The thing about presidential scholars is that they are not political actors. They're not trying to convince you to vote one way or another. They're not going on to Fox News or MSNBC as pundits (very rarely one or two might, but that's not the norm). Their career does not depend on praising or bashing Trump or any other president. Their careers depend on, and they care about, being as objective as possible and arriving at the basic truth of the matter. Bias is the bane of historians and they do everything possible to try and avoid it. (good ones, anyway. There are exceptions. See: Howard Zinn) Also, as historians, they have the context of being able to understand Trump's actions as better, worse, or basically the same as other presidents throughout history. Most people don't have that.

I could have made a video like that myself back in 2004, as I had become very much against Bush after he had severely disappointed me, but back in 2000 I was one of the ones saying "give him a chance," and I was kind of happy that Gore didn't win even though I didn't vote in that election and had no strong preference either way. I just didn't like Gore.

Cheers.

2. The most recent similar poll was conducted in 2021, but did not include Biden, I assume because it is too soon into his presidency.

3. There's no way in hell that in any future polls Biden will ever be ranked below Trump. My guess, if there were such a poll conducted today that included Biden (though most wouldn't, as we're only a year in to his presidency), is that he would be ranked somewhere right around the middle. Somewhere in the Taft - Coolidge - Cleveland range. You would have to be absolutely deranged to think he'd be ranked at the bottom. But, I can see from everything you posted just now, that you absolutely are... so.... yeah.

Not going to bother responding to the rest of this given point #3.

Thanks for taking the quiz and commenting.

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.

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.

Countless American lives lost due to incompetence and disdain for the common American? Are you watching the news lately? This is actually pretty funny coming in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

and yeah it's not my opinion but I do concur with virtually every scholar in the world when they rate Trump as the worst or among the worst of all American presidents, and Obama as significantly better. This is not even a controversial opinion amongst those who study this sort of thing. It's virtually impossible to believe that Trump is anything other than the single worst president in US history unless you live inside the Fox News bubble. Hundreds of nationally prominent Republicans (present or former), conservatives, and independents including multiple former GOP presidents and nominees for presidents would back me up on this.

Trump is an idiot in the literal sense. He is most likely mentally retarded.

As for the general election in '24... if Trump runs either as the GOP candidate or as a 3rd party candidate, if he's going up against Biden, he will be crushed. Just look at Biden's approval ratings for the last month vs. Trump's over 4 years. And then consider that Trump and the GOP did absolutely everything they could to try and steal the 2020 election, and failed, but they're not in power anymore.

Let's do some math here. The probability that Trump engaged in criminal activity with Jeffrey Epstein is at least 95%. Both are known criminals, known to like "younger" women, accused of criminal sexual activity multiple times, have absolutely zero moral compass or conscience, are obvious sociopaths, partied together many times, and Trump is on record in an interview remarking about how Epstein is fun to hang out with and likes women as much as he does and "on the younger side."

The probability that Clinton engaged in criminal activity with Epstein is about 50%. Clinton is also an accused sex offender, though not as oft-accused as Trump.

What's the probability that Trump or Clinton were stupid enough to put themselves in a situation where Epstein could obtain incriminating evidence against them for use in blackmail? I'd put that at 100% for Trump and 60% for Clinton. Trump is a world-class idiot who can't operate an umbrella. Clinton on the other hand is by all accounts a genius, but, he did get caught in the Lewinsky affair, and Epstein is known for being pretty clever and devious. So odds are he could have gotten dirt on both of them.

What are the odds that Trump or Clinton would have the will to have someone murdered? Well Trump is a total psychopath who has repeatedly expressed admiration for murderous thugs like Putin and Duterte. He is a malignant narcissist with 0 capacity for empathy.

And motive? Who is more likely to have the motive to have Epstein killed? Who has more to lose? Well... Trump is the sitting US president. In an election year. If he loses this next election, as an unindicted co-conspirator in multiple felonies protected from incarceration only by DOJ policy to not charge sitting presidents, this means he will likely go to jail. He is also a narcissist who can't imagine losing. He would do absolutely anything to not lose this election. His odds of having motive are 100%. Clinton? He's been out of politics for 20 years and now does charity work. His only reason to not want his..

and finally there's the question of who is more likely to have the power to get Epstein killed. Trump is the sitting US president. Epstein was being held in a federal prison. Trump's buddy Bill Barr is the current head of the DOJ and is completely corrupt and unethical and will do anything Trump wants him to do. On the other hand, Trump is also an incompetent bumbling boob who seems to be too stupid to get away with anything. He might kill Epstein then call and brag on Fox and Friends. But he's got the power to do it and in the end the odds that Trump could have had Epstein offed in prison and gotten away with it are something like 90%.

As for Clinton? Again, he's been out of politics for 20 years. He no doubt is well-connected, and he's a smart, capable guy, but his connections in the DOJ...

Finally, what are the odds that Epstein actually was murdered and didn't commit suicide? Eh.. probably like 35%. It's a possibility. But not terribly likely.

Odds that Trump had Epstein killed:

(0.95)(1.00)(1.00)(1.00)(0.90)(0.35) or around 30%

Odds that Clinton had Epstein killed:

(0.50)(0.60)(0.20)(0.50)(0.10)(0.35) or around 0.1%

And this is ignoring the possibility that Epstein was murdered by associates of Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew, any of his hundreds of other contacts, or some random vigilante in the prison.

So, again, you'd have to be colossally stupid to think Clinton did it.

But this was originally in response to BusinessFreak who, among other unsupported conspiracy theories, believes that the Clintons likely had something to do with the death of Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump supporters: "so you're saying you don't like him because he spends 80% of his time tweeting like a retarded 3rd grader? Since when is that a bad thing? Pointing to your dislike of that, which you didn't even mention, clearly undermines your whole argument because everyone should love that he conducts foreign policy the way a small child with tourette's syndrome would."

But the fact that Trump was so bad at governance that he couldn't even get along with the members of his own sycophantic party I don't think will be repeated any time in the near future. If Democrats are able to hold on to the House and expand their majority in the Senate in the 2022 mid-terms, then there's no reason to suspect that Biden won't be able to work with Congress just fine.

Other instances of luck during FDR's term? Somewhat lucky for his ambition to join WW2 that the Japanese decided to attack, and their German allies declared war, ending any debate over this. Lucky that the Japanese failed to hit any aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor because they were out on maneuvers. Pretty lucky for FDR and the Allies that Hitler was stupid enough to invade the USSR. And that the Germans never invaded Britain. ::shrug:: would have to ask the experts.

Meanwhile, in response to the 2020 Solarwinds hack, which was far bigger and more serious, and actually backed directly by the Russian government, Trump refused to do anything, because he was a Russian puppet who was entirely deferential to and never criticized Putin in 4 years.

I have no doubt horrible things are going to happen as a direct result of the American withdrawal. Similar to what would have happened if we'd pulled out in 2005 or 2010 or 2015. Those who were always saying the US should leave because the Afghan government/military can handle things themselves, or that the US invasion made things worse for the Afghan people, are wrong and were always wrong.

The only thing I find pretty gross are those who both a) believed and argued strongly that the US should leave Afghanistan and b) are now going to blame Biden for what happens as a direct result of him not stopping what was already in motion and what they wanted. Plenty of those types.

I haven't given this serious thought and don't think it's really very important at all. But I think I'd probably at least rank Cheney above Spirow Agnew. The man so terrible and notoriously corrupt that his own party forced him to resign before Nixon resigned just so that he would never be president.

6th, 6th, 7th, 7th, 13th, 9th, 11th, 8th, 5th, 13th, 6th, 13th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 9th, 9th, 18th, 15th, 19th, 22nd

As you can see, he only really started to fall out of favor since about 2017. Your opinion is an extremely recent one. If the quiz were based only on opinions from the last 5 years, then Jackson would not be in the top quartile. He still wouldn't be in the bottom quartile, though.

I agree that Jimmy gets a lot more hate than he rightly deserves. I think he's usually viewed as weak and indecisive on both foreign and domestic issues. He receives blame for the recession, oil shock, and Iran-hostage crisis he presided over, none of which he had much to do with. And rarely gets credit for other things like the Camp David accords.

Before Richard Nixon, Harding's administration was considered by far and hands down the most corrupt in history. Teapot Dome was synonymous with scandal and corruption the way that ____gate has become a byword for political scandal since Watergate. And Harding has been rated at or near the bottom of all rankings of presidents done ever since.

But if you read about this scandal, which involved some no-bid low-rent leasing of a few Navy oil reserves to private companies.... my god... it just boggles the mind now, in the era of Trump, that this was ever even considered newsworthy. The Trump administration did 5 worse & more openly shameless corrupt things than that *every* day. It's not even remotely close. But ignorance is bliss.