The troubles of former U.S. President Donald Trump seem to be piling up without end. The potential Republican candidate for the presidency is not only facing criminal issues and legal pursuits, but also a new ranking brought forth by more than 150 American historians. In a recent survey conducted at the University of Houston, 154 presidential historians revealed the best and worst presidents in U.S. history.
Abraham Lincoln ranked first as the best president of all time, while the controversial Trump came in last. These historians were asked to assign a score from 0 to 100 for each president. Lincoln topped the list with an average score of 95, while Biden scored 62.66, ranking 14th, ahead of Ronald Reagan. Franklin Roosevelt came in second, followed by the country’s first president, George Washington. The fourth position went to Theodore Roosevelt and the fifth to Thomas Jefferson, with Harry Truman in sixth place and Barack Obama seventh.
On the contrary, Trump received the worst score ever, with an average of only 11 points. He was also labeled as the "most polarizing" president in the survey. Despite these unfavorable results for Trump, a change is not impossible. For instance, Barack Obama advanced nine places since the first survey, moving from 16th in 2015 to seventh in the current 2024 survey. Similarly, Andrew Jackson, who served as president from 1829 to 1837, fell 12 places in the ranking, even though his term was nearly 200 years ago. It is noteworthy that the 77-year-old Trump remains the most prominent figure among Republicans, and some polls have shown him slightly leading Biden, his 81-year-old Democratic rival.
