Historians just ranked the presidents. Trump wasn't last.

[Lasher]

Despite being impeached twice, former president Donald Trump is not the worst president in U.S. history, according to 142 presidential historians surveyed by C-SPAN, the results of which were released Wednesday.

But the survey doesn’t give Trump much to brag about either. He ranked lower than William Henry Harrison, who was only president for 31 days, and John Tyler, the only former president buried in a coffin draped with the Confederate flag.

So who ranked worse than Trump? According to the historians, presidents Franklin “Bleeding Kansas” Pierce, Andrew “First to Be Impeached” Johnson and James “Failed to Stop the Civil War” Buchanan, who came in last.

To be clear, this was an informal survey whose respondents were selected by C-SPAN, not a scientific poll. Dozens more historians were invited to complete the survey this time than in years past. C-SPAN said this was to reflect “new diversity in race, gender, age and philosophy,” but that also makes it harder to compare it to previous surveys.

Still, the respondents are all distinguished presidential historians covering a broad range of perspectives, and there are insights to gain from their collective opinions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/06/30/presidential-rankings-2021-cspan-historians/

Wikipedia provides a running total of historical scholar survey results. Trump has improved in their ranking there from dead last to fourth place in this latest C-SPAN survey.

[Croney]

1. I disagree. He will always be dead last.

[Lasher]

7. He does just that in a fair aggregate of scholar surveys at Wikipedia.

He's come in at last place (44th), 42nd, and now 41st in the 3 scholar surveys there. Andrew Johnson. James Buchanan, and Frank Pierce all were were ranked lower that Trump in the latest C-SPAN poll. But a fair aggregate of all historical scholar polls puts Trump dead last. Buchanan, for example, started out as number 26.

[Maru Kitteh]

13. I don't need him to be last but if he could go ahead and

do the "dead" part - that would be great.

[Croney]

14. Ha!

[jimfields33]

23. Reagan ranked 9. Carter ranked 26. He was 22 in 2000.

Not sure why Carter’s falling. Reagan should not be above Obama or Carter.

[Andy823]

2. Yeah, but

give him time he still has a chance to win the "last place" position!

[Enter stage left]

3. Just shows to go you...The average Presidential Historians are...

no where near as smart as the average DU members.

[Mike Nelson]

4. I think...

... he will drop lower. Franklin Pierce is, if I recall, a Bush relation... on the mother's side (Barbara Pierce Bush). They don't have a very good record.

... the top three, in a sense, created and recreated the USA.

[JHB]

5. Give time for the gears to grind.

Distance will provide better perspective.

[WarGamer]

6. Shrub was worse. Millions of lives lost DIRECTLY because of him.

And Trillions of US dollars.

[rurallib]

16. He was ranked at 29 which seemed unreal

he's 40s material at least

[WarGamer]

18. I'm shocked.

He single-handedly caused the Middle East to collapse into chaos, he gave birth to Al Qaeda in Iraq and ISIS, he had the brilliant idea that ALL people deserve "freedumb" even those who have lived under despots for 50 years. So we got Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and other hot spots.

Worst POTUS ever.

Trump is a piker in comparison. Trump was a moron. He talked a lot of shit but in retrospect, Shrub was more DESTRUCTIVE. Joe has already undone 75% of Trump's mess.

[Peppertoo]

8. The bottom three are all Civil War associated

Andrew Johnson was probably the worst & should have been removed in the impeachment trial.

[Ron Green]

9. I don't trust the credibility of this panel, many of whom are from

right-wing colleges.

[Peppertoo]

10. What do you disagree with them about?

[WarGamer]

12. Reagan at #9?

[3catwoman3]

20. Raygun should be in the bottom 9, IMO.

He was horrible but managed to fool people with his homey, avuncular manner.

[WarGamer]

21. I disagree with most of these Presidential polls.

In reality, they're popularity contests.

How do you measure a GREAT President?

By exercise of power? By the economic growth of the USA during their term? By the expansion of the Country, adding millions of square miles?

So many ways to measure "greatness"... and the categories they chose in this last poll are silly.

Do you measure stress level on the country? Military Conquest? Heavy hand of the Federal Gov't?

FDR and Lincoln probably flexed the most muscle during their terms. Washington might have been the most consequential.

Clinton, by all measurables should have beat out Reagan.

[3catwoman3]

22. Clinton, by all measurables should have beat out Reagan.

Damn right.

[Peppertoo]

24. Fair enough. That is way too high for Reagan.

[Wounded Bear]

11. It's early. TFG has only been out of office for 5 months...

in time, I'm sure he'll take his rightfully earned place in the cellar.

[Initech]

15. Let's ask the historians this question:

Has any other sitting president attempted to murder a sitting vice president in an effort to steal an election? No? That automatically makes him the worst.

[LifeLongDemocratic]

17. Ha ha

He is not even the best at being the worst. He the 4th worst not 1st. What a loser.

[Blue Owl]

19. FF45 tweeted at a 4th grade level

And easily was the most corrupt POS to ever hold office