How do historians rank Donald Trump among US presidents?
Executive summary
Most major scholarly surveys place Donald Trump near the bottom of historical rankings of U.S. presidents—often in the bottom five or last—while some public and partisan-minded polls show a more favorable picture, underscoring a sharp gap between academic historians and segments of the public or ideologically driven projects [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Scholarly consensus: near the bottom or last
Multiple large surveys of presidential historians and political scientists conducted since Trump left office consistently rank him among the worst presidents; the 2021 C‑SPAN historians’ survey placed him around 41st out of 44, and later scholarly tallies put him in the bottom three or even last in more recent expert surveys cited by outlets including The Guardian, Axios and Statista [1] [2] [3] [5].
2. Which surveys and how they measure “greatness”
The surveys differ in size and criteria—C‑SPAN’s 2021 Presidential Historians Survey used ten leadership qualities such as moral authority and crisis leadership, while the Presidential Greatness Project and Siena Research Institute use their own expert panels and scoring rubrics—but the pattern of Trump scoring especially poorly on moral authority and administrative skills recurs across these academic instruments [1] [3] [6].
3. Where he fares worst: moral authority and administrative skill
Across objective criteria reported by Statista and other poll write‑ups, Trump ranks particularly low on moral authority and administrative competence, with only public persuasion sometimes outside the bottom quartile—findings that help explain why historians put him near the bottom even when his raw policy outcomes are debated [3].
4. Nuance: timing, partisanship and the “recency” problem
Historians’ rankings are not immutable; they change over decades as archival evidence and perspectives shift, and recent presidents often get judged more harshly or forgivingly depending on contemporary politics—scholars warn that partisanship and the proximity of events shape current rankings, a caveat the American Enterprise Institute and others note when contrasting scholarly results with public polls [4] [7].
5. Public and partisan pushes paint a different picture
Public opinion polls and ideologically driven projects diverge markedly: Gallup and other polls show a significant minority or plurality viewing Trump positively in historical terms, and groups like PragerU run alternative rankings intended to broaden criteria and include more conservative voices—moves that highlight an agenda to contest scholarly consensus rather than a simple factual contradiction [4] [8].
6. Comparative framing: why some historians still rank others lower
Even as many historians place Trump at or near the bottom, classic “worst” presidents such as James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson remain references; some recent scholarly surveys nonetheless rank Trump below even those 19th‑century figures, a striking signal of how historians weigh norm violations, institutional damage, and threats to democratic process in their judgments [2] [9].
7. What this means for Trump’s historical legacy
The current scholarly verdict is clear: by most expert measures, Trump is judged among the least successful or most damaging presidents in U.S. history, especially on institutional stewardship and moral leadership; however, that academic consensus coexists with a politically polarized public memory and organized efforts to rehabilitate his standing, meaning his final place in the pantheon could still shift with time, new evidence, or further political developments—an outcome scholars themselves emphasize when discussing the limits of present‑day rankings [2] [4] [6].