Donald Trump officially ranked by presidential historians as the worst president ever

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 06:51PM #1

A political survey conducted by has officially ranked Donald Trump the worst US president of all time, in 44th place (Lincoln was ranked 1st). Amongst the postwar presidents:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/19/opinion/how-does-trump-stack-up-against-the-best-and-worst-presidents.html

6th: Harry Truman
7th: Dwight Eisenhower
8th: Barack Obama (this is too high IMO)
9th: Ronald Reagan
10th: Lyndon Johnson
13th: Bill Clinton
16th: John F Kennedy
17th: George HW Bush
25th: Gerald Ford
26th: Jimmy Carter
30th: George W Bush (too high also)
33th: Richard Nixon
44th: Donald Trump

Nate Silver, who is certainly by no means a Trump supporter and has been roundly criticized for repeatedly being too anti-Trump summed my feelings by writing this:

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/965616457605410816

I want to say that I'm no fan of Trump and have made it repeatedly clear that I consider him to be a very very poor president, but for christ sake, we've had presidents who have led the US into a great depressions (Herbert Hoover, crashing the US economy leaving a 25% unemployment to his successor), James Buchanan (who plunged the US into the civil war, leaving the country being ripped apart and 700,000 dead), Franklin Pierce who expanded slavery, George W Bush who invaded Iraq under false pretenses, killing 5,000 of us own troops, 100,000 civilians, tortured, and gave the worst financial crisis in 80+ years.

Trump is certainly the worst person to ever be president, but worst person =/= worst president. If Trump ever started a nuclear war killing thousands or crashed the US economy, then I would certainly have no problems ranking him potentially as the worst president ever, but let's wait for that to happen first. At the moment I'd rank Trump about 35th ish. (i.e. crap but not the crappiest).

Also Obama 8th LMAO?? Obama did a good job rescuing the economy from dire straits in 2009, has a good LGBT record passed a solid healthcare bill.

But a lot of his other stuff is totally overrated, the Paris climate accords are almost certainly going to fail to meet their targets (95% chance of failure according to scientists), the Iran deal may fall apart at the helm of Trump, he never achieved 3% GDP (only postwar president never to do so), wage growth was abysmal under him. Obamacare was a good step foward but is under attack from the GOP and the uninsured rate is still 12.2% (as per Gallup) meaning 30-35 million Americans (and rising) still have no health insurance. If Obama was so good he wouldn't have had lost 1000 seats to the Republicans while in office and have have a moron like Trump replacing him. I'd rank Obama about 12-15th but no higher IMO.

The one good thing about this survey??

LBJ absolutely kicking JFK's arse (10 vs 16), JFK's one of the most overrated presidents and politicians ever, all the civil rights and anti-poverty programs were passed by his successor LBJ who was an excellent legislature, so at least thats something. LBJ easily America's most underrated president.

Hande hoche! · 19-02-2018 06:55PM

Wouldn't even rate him as the worst of the twenty first century thus far.

Vladimir Poontang · 19-02-2018 06:55PM

Those results are embarrassing...to presidential historians.

Your Face · 19-02-2018 06:56PM

Yawn

arybvtcw0eolkf · 19-02-2018 06:57PM

Z'zzzzzzzzzzzzz

The_Valeyard · 19-02-2018 06:58PM

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Wouldn't even rate him as the worst of the twenty first century thus far.

True. I still rate George Bush Jnr as far worse than Trump.

SeaFields · 19-02-2018 06:59PM

Ah shur someone has to be last. It's all about taking part. That's what matters.

Herb Powell · 19-02-2018 07:07PM

Never mind the rest of them, having Reagan up that high is madness surely???

:eek:

Den14 · 19-02-2018 07:09PM

Shur he's worse than Hitler! I'd put him at a millionth!

pleas advice · 19-02-2018 07:10PM

Where did Grover Cleveland come, again?

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 07:10PM

Herb Powell wrote: »

Never mind the rest of them, having Reagan up that high is madness surely???

:eek:

Never been a Reagan fan, but seeing off the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union (not really down to him mind) was a BIG foreign policy win at least.

Compare that Obama's foreign policy legacy, Iran deal (which may not even survive) and what else exactly?? He escalated the war in Afghanistan pointlessly and never really left Iraq (5,000 US troops remain), screwed up Libya etc. Unremarkable at best.

cantdecide · 19-02-2018 07:13PM

I'm not fond of DT but oh my dog, is all this crapola hilarious.

some random drunk · 19-02-2018 07:16PM

I wonder where William Henry Harrison and all his mighty achievements came on the list?

Edit to add: Actually it says on the link William Henry Harrison came 42nd, 2 places above Trump despite the fact Harrison died just over a month after becoming president...

BattleCorp · 19-02-2018 07:22PM

That ranking system is worth a stocking of sh1te.

Fr_Dougal · 19-02-2018 07:23PM

He’ll get voted in for a 2nd term.

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 07:24PM

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

He’ll get voted in for a 2nd term.

If true, would pretty amazing accomplishment for someone who is supposedly the worst American president ever. I wonder what historians would think then?

Beechwoodspark · 19-02-2018 07:25PM

I would rate trump as EASILY the worst president in my lifetime already and I don’t expect him to salvage his reputation in the remainder of his tenure in the White House.

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 07:29PM

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

I would rate trump as EASILY the worst president in my lifetime already and I don’t expect him to salvage his reputation in the remainder of his tenure in the White House.

Trump created over 2 million jobs in his first year, if he keeps that up for 8 years (no guarantee of course, and certainly no guarantee he'll get a 2nd term). That would mean he would've created 16-17 million jobs.

That would be the second highest ever in US history behind Bill Clinton (23 million). George W Bush on the other hand only created 1 million.

If he gets those sort economic figures then he's absolutely nowhere near America's worst president, no matter how much of a twat he acts on twitter. This shouldn't be a personality contest IMO.

Urindanger · 19-02-2018 07:30PM

So they've declared him worst president ever even though he's only a year into his term. What a load of w*nk.

Beechwoodspark · 19-02-2018 07:31PM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Trump created over 2 million jobs in his first year, if he keeps that up for 8 years (no guarantee of course, and certainly no guarantee he'll get a 2nd term). That would mean he would've created 16-17 million jobs.

That would be the second highest ever in US history behind Bill Clinton. George W Bush only created 1 million.

If he gets those sort economic figures then he's absolutely nowhere near America's worst president, no matter how much of a twat he acts on twitter. This shouldn't be a personality contest.

I attribute the last year’s economic record as a legacy of Obama’s years. also, there are many aspects to a presidency that I value. Economic performance is just one aspect.

begbysback · 19-02-2018 07:32PM

Historians should stick to the past - who asked them to assess current times anyways?

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 07:32PM

Urindanger wrote: »

So they've declared him worst president ever even though he's only a year into his term. What a load of w*nk.

I'm sure Americans in 2017 and 2018 must prefer to be under the better times of the Civil War (700,000 dead), or the great depression (25% unemployment). Such such terrible days are 2017 and 2018 to be alive.

wakka12 · 19-02-2018 07:33PM

Well he made it to presidency. I can think of worse titles than worst president of the U.S

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 07:34PM

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

I attribute the last years economic record as a legacy of Obama.

Fair enough, there's an argument for that, when does Trump get credit? Because he keeps this up indefinitely over the next 3-7 years you can't say at the end of his 4/8 years it was all due to Obama.

Beechwoodspark · 19-02-2018 07:35PM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Fair enough, there's an argument for that, when does Trump get credit? Because he keeps this up indefinitely over the next 3-7 years you can't say at the end of his 4/8 years it was all due to Obama.

Point to something I should give trump credit for? I’m being serious. I’m drawing blanks here so help me

Herb Powell · 19-02-2018 07:45PM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Never been a Reagan fan, but seeing off the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union (not really down to him mind) was a BIG foreign policy win at least.

Compare that Obama's foreign policy legacy, Iran deal (which may not even survive) and what else exactly?? He escalated the war in Afghanistan pointlessly and never really left Iraq (5,000 US troops remain), screwed up Libya etc. Unremarkable at best.

True, I just think Reagan did a lot to send America down its current "fucck the poor" path.

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 07:46PM

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Point to something I should give trump credit for? I’m being serious. I’m drawing blanks here so help me

If economy stays good or improves over the next 4/8 years then I'm sorry Trump (or at least the competent people in his administration, if there are any) will have to get some credit.

Beechwoodspark · 19-02-2018 07:49PM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

If economy stays good or improves over the next 4/8 years then I'm sorry Trump (or at least the competent people in his administration, if there are any) will have to get some credit.

Ok. And that’s just one aspect of a presidency yes? In the round he scores terrible figures overall. Dubya, previously supposedly the worst president of the last 30 years, outshines him in so many ways.

Also, on the economy I predict trump and his billionaire cronies will overheat it and it’ll go down the sh*tter. And the dems will be sent for to try to clean up his mess. Just my two cents.

suicide_circus · 19-02-2018 07:51PM

obama and clinton should be lower

mcmoustache · 19-02-2018 07:55PM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Fair enough, there's an argument for that, when does Trump get credit? Because he keeps this up indefinitely over the next 3-7 years you can't say at the end of his 4/8 years it was all due to Obama.

I'm no economist, but when a country is at 4% unemployment, it becomes pretty hard to improve on that number. There will always be a percentage of the labour pool between jobs or simply unable to work.

If it holds at 4% by the end of 2020, I'd say Trump can fairly claim credit for it.

SharpshooterTom · 19-02-2018 08:02PM

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Ok. And that’s just one aspect of a presidency yes? In the round he scores terrible figures overall. Dubya, previously supposedly the worst president of the last 30 years, outshines him in so many ways.

Also, on the economy I predict trump and his billionaire cronies will overheat it and it’ll go down the sh*tter. And the dems will be sent for to try to clean up his mess. Just my two cents.

Remember Dubya's record is:

- Invaded Iraq under false pretenses, killing 5,000 US troops and 100,000+ civilians, leaving a vacuum for the creation of ISIS.
- Presided over the worst economic collapse since the great depression.
- Passed mass sweeping surveillance programs.
- Instigated torture and waterboarding.
- Mishandled Hurricane Katrina crisis, 1,500+ dead.
- Turned a record budget surplus into a record budget deficit.
- Established Gitmo.
- Created 1.2 million net jobs (worst of any post president, his predecessor Bill Clinton created 23 million).

Trump's bad, but he's a way to go before he enters Bush league.

Donald Trump officially ranked by presidential historians as the worst president ever

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