Photo: Julia Nikhinson Agence France-Presse Donald Trump is also considered the most polarizing US president in history, topping a list of 13 of his counterparts who have helped divide the country.
Fabien Deglise
February 19, 2024
- United States
It’s another American paradox. While he leads the race for the Republican nomination for the next presidential election in the United States, the former occupant of the White House Donald Trump has just been described as the worst president in the history of the country by a panel of experts from the American Political Science Association.
The populist finds himself in 45th place in a ranking of 45 American presidential figures submitted to the analysis and evaluation of 154 specialists in American politics, as part of an annual survey called Presidential Greatness Project 2024, carried out by the association between November 15 and December 31. The results were revealed Monday on the occasion of President's Day in the United States, a holiday set on the calendar to celebrate the birthday of George Washington.
Donald Trump is also considered the most polarizing US president in history, topping a list of 13 of his counterparts who have helped divide the country. The former reality TV star, famous for the violence of his remarks and for his fascination with dictators around the world, surpasses Andrew Jackson, seventh American president, who imposed himself between 1829 and 1837, as the strong symbol of a slave-holding America that also violated the rights of the First Nations.
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This list also contains the names of Barack Obama, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and even Ronald Reagan, whose years in power contributed to widening ideological fault lines within the federation, estimate the authors of this survey.
And the best are…
Overall, it is the Republican Abraham Lincoln who stands out once again for having been one of the greatest presidents of the United States, according to the group of American political scientists. He is closely followed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson, who occupy the top of the ranking.
The current President of the United States, Joe Biden, is in 14th place, behind Bill Clinton in 12th and Barack Obama in 7th, but ahead of Ronald Reagan (16th), George Bush (19th) or Jimmy Carter (22nd).
At the bottom of the list, Donald Trump is judged more harshly than James Buchanan, who plunged the United States into civil war, Andrew Johnson, who contributed to the weakening of civil rights for African-Americans, as Franklin Pierce, defender of slavery, and William Henry Harrison, whose presidency of barely one month was among the most insignificant in the history of the country.
In July 2021, a group of American historians also included former President Donald Trump, just a few months after his first and only term, among the dunces in their list evaluating the work of occupants of the White House. At 41st place, he was judged only slightly better than James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson or Franklin Pierce.
This ranking of American presidents comes at the heart of a tense electoral year which, having barely begun, is already raising the ire of voters.
Regardless of whether they are considered good, not good or bad, 70% of Americans believe that Joe Biden should not run for the White House and 56% believe that Donald Trump should also stay away from the election, according to a probe carried out a few days ago by the Ipsos institute on behalf of Reuters.
After winning the first primaries and the first caucuses of his party, the populist should be the Republican candidate for the presidential election next November, which heralds another face-to-face with Joe Biden , who will lead the race for the Democrats. An inevitable revenge that the majority of Americans, however, do not want.