After Just One Year, Historians Already Rank Donald Trump As Worst President Ever, Obama Listed As Eighth Best
Donald Trump has apparently already made his mark on the U.S. oval office, with a survey of 170 historians near-unanimous in ranking him dead last of all presidents in American history — and after only one year in office.
This week, the New York Times conducted a survey of the 170 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section. It was the first time in four years that the newspaper conducted the survey, which calls on members to rank all of the 45 U.S. presidents.
And in just one year, Donald Trump has unseated James Buchanan as the worst U.S. president of all time. The listing is on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being great, 50 being average, and 0 considered a failure. Donald Trump scored only a 12, three points lower than Buchanan, who plunged the U.S. into Civil War.
The man who ended the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, topped the list with a score of 95. George Washington scored a 93 and Franklin Delano Roosevelt netted a score of 89.
While the ranking brought some terrible news for Donald Trump, it was quite good for his immediate predecessor, Axios noted. Barack Obama moved up 10 spots on the list and now ranks No. 8 of all time with a score of 71. George W. Bush rose as well, gaining five spots over the last survey to rank at No. 35. Bill Clinton, who has come under increasing pressure as more attention is being given to allegations of sexual harassment, fell five spots to No. 13.
Donald Trump has seen his first year in office careen from one controversy to another, all against the backdrop of a Russia investigation that appears to be moving closer and closer into his inner circle. Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is facing a number of charges and Special Counsel Robert Mueller just flipped Mueller’s business partner, Rick Gates, to testify against him.
Experts rank Trump as worst president, Obama 8th besthttps://t.co/Fx5vFC7LEI
— Axios (@axios) February 19, 2018
While Trump continues to deny that his campaign colluded with Russia, he has been unable to escape controversy and charges that he is trying to obstruct the investigation by firing James Comey and repeatedly trying to cast doubt on the investigation.