Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States on a promise to “Make America Great Again.” But a preeminent group of political scientists that Trump would no doubt characterize as “haters and losers” has once again ranked him as the worst commander-in-chief in the nation’s history.
The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey was conducted at the end of 2023 among members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association — a group that publishes multiple academic journals — and scholars who have lately published peer-reviewed papers related to presidential politics. The 154 responses were collected from self-described Republicans and conservatives in addition to Democrats and liberals. These participants ranked each president on a 0-100 scale, with 0 indicating “failure,” 50 equaling “average,” and 100 meaning “great.”
Taking the average of these scores for each president gave an aggregate rating, and it may be no surprise that Abraham Lincoln came out on top at 93.87, followed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George Washington, the only other presidents rated in the 90s. Joe Biden landed on the higher end of the spectrum, claiming the 14th spot with the more middling score of 62.66. At the very bottom of the list, meanwhile, was none other than Donald J. Trump, at a meager 10.92.
Trump had also placed last in the previous edition of the survey, released in 2018, but performed slightly worse this time around: Six years ago, he earned a rating of 12.34, putting him just a couple of points behind the second-worst president, James Buchanan. This year, the assessment of Buchanan improved slightly to 16.71, leaving Trump almost six points under his nearest competitor. For 2024, Trump was also rated by far the most “polarizing” of all the presidents.
Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary for Trump and now co-host of Outnumbered on Fox News, was among the conservatives to blast the list as meaningless (which perhaps raises the question of why she mentioned it on TV at all). Vaguely questioning the methods of the survey and calling it “infuriating in so many ways,” McEnany — who has been viciously attacked by Trump himself since pivoting to her pundit role — expressed disbelief that Barack Obama was ranked in the top 10. She also fumed that Biden had placed above Ronald Reagan. “They are the Ivory Tower elites who in no way represent the view of the American people,” she said of the scholars behind the paper.
The Biden campaign celebrated the survey with a statement mocking Trump’s dismal performance. “Happy Presidents’ Day! … Unless You’re Donald Trump,” it began. After touting the fact that Biden had emerged in the top third of the rankings, it pointedly compared Trump to Buchanan, “who is credited with leading the United States to a civil war,” and Herbert Hoover, “the only president besides Trump to leave office with fewer jobs than when he started.”
“It takes a lot to be known as the absolute worst in your profession in the history of your country,” Biden spokesman Kevin Munoz noted in additional comments. “But Donald Trump managed to do it, and it’s pretty clear why. Donald Trump spent his four years in office working for one thing only: himself.”
Trump, who is currently dealing with the aftermath of $355 million fraud penalty handed down to him by a New York judge on Friday and hawking gold Trump sneakers for $399 a pair, has yet to weigh in on the survey. But it’s not often he loses a contest without claiming that it’s rigged.
