Historian Survey: Trump is the Worst Living President, but Not the Worst of All-Time

There are few more challenging jobs in the world than being the President of the United States. And each presidency comes with it’s own individual challenges. How each leader responds to these challenges defines their legacy.

[Photo by James Devaney/GC Images]
Every four years, C-SPAN conducts a survey among historians to rank the presidents in order by the job they did while in office. This year marks the first time that Donald Trump appeared on the survey. And while Trump is ranked as the worst living president, he is not quite the worst of all-time.

Trump came in 41st place out of 44th on the list, essentially tied with Franklin Pierce. He was awarded the most points for “public persuasion.” He was dinged in the survey for “moral authority” and “pursued justice for all.”

In what will surely be a blow to Trump’s ego, Barack Obama was a rated as the 10th greatest president of all-time. The 44th president was only topped by luminaries like Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson.

And while many might have expected Trump to finish in last place, the presidents behind him were quite terrible. Like Trump, Andrew Johnson was impeached. The 17th president was controversial for not protecting newly freed slaves and going easy on the Confederacy for their role in the Civil War.

James Buchanan, the lowest ranked president, is blamed for failing to put out the fires that led to the Civil War.

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