Trump Is Worst President In US History, Political Scientists Claim

Donald Trump is rated the worst president in American history by a group of 170 political science scholars. Being ranked 44th and last among U.S. presidents classified Trump as a failure, according to the survey’s parameters.

On the other hand, this group selected Abraham Lincoln as the best among all presidents in the history of the American Republic since 1776.

Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, took eighth place, and was also the highest ranked among the five living presidents. Obama was in 18th place during the last survey four years ago. Among the three other living presidents, Bill Clinton ranked 13th, Jimmy Carter, 26th and George W. Bush, 30th.

The ranking of presidents by order of greatness was determined by members of the Presidents & Executive Politics section of the American Political Science Association. These scholars completed an online survey between December 2017 and January 2018.

They ranked American presidents on a scale of 0 to 100, from failure (zero) to average (50) to great (100). The totals were then averaged for each president and ranked from highest to lowest.

It must be noted that of the 170 respondents, 57 percent identified themselves as Democrats. On the other hand, 27 percent were Independents and 13 percent, Republicans. The remainder chose no political affiliation.

But even among the Republican scholars, Trump ranked very unfavorably. Respondents who identified as Republicans or conservatives ranked Trump 40th out of 44 presidents. Self-described Democrats and Independents both ranked Trump dead last.

The survey saw Trump dislodge James Buchanan, formerly the worst president. It was conducted by Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston, and Justin Vaughn, an associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Idaho History and Politics at Boise State University.

A note on the number of presidents: Forty-four men have been elected presidents but the number of presidents is listed as 45. That’s because Grover Cleveland is counted twice as the 22nd and 24th president since he was elected for two nonconsecutive terms

Here are the greatest U.S. presidents as ranked by the American Political Science Association:

1: Abraham Lincoln

2: George Washington

3: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

4: Teddy Roosevelt

5: Thomas Jefferson

6: Harry Truman

7: Dwight Eisenhower

8: Barack Obama

9: Ronald Reagan

10: Lyndon B. Johnson

11: Woodrow Wilson