Trump is the worst most despicable president since the 1800

1. Historical rankings and the company of "worst" presidents

Aggregate rankings compiled by historians and institutions show consistent patterns: C‑SPAN and Siena surveys place Trump among the lowest‑rated presidents while lists that average multiple polls and expert opinions sometimes put James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Warren Harding at the very bottom for failures tied to sectional crisis, reconstruction policy, or corruption ^{[6] [2] [3] [5]}. Popular and niche rankings vary—crowd‑voted lists and opinion pieces can place different figures at the bottom—illustrating that “worst” is not a single settled category but a contested set of judgments ^{[7] [8]}.

2. Where Trump ranks in recent scholarly and journalistic surveys

Recent high‑profile scholarly and media surveys have been unambiguous: a presidential historians’ poll and related reporting placed Trump 45th in a ranking of presidents, trailing figures historically viewed as calamitous, and news outlets highlighted his low placement alongside commentary about his divisiveness and legal troubles ^{[1] [2]}. These assessments typically synthesize performance across leadership dimensions rather than rest solely on partisan intensity or single scandals ^[2].

3. Comparing Trump to 19th‑century precedents

Comparisons to presidents of the 1800s hinge on what one emphasizes: James Buchanan is often cited as the worst for failing to prevent the Civil War and for maladroit leadership in a national crisis ^[4], while Andrew Johnson is remembered for obstructing Reconstruction and being the first impeached president ^[5]. Those structural, policy, and human‑cost failures create a durable case for some 19th‑century presidents being historically worse on specific metrics even as Trump’s record introduces different kinds of institutional and legal concerns ^{[5] [4]}.

4. Why historians penalize Trump—and where that analysis is strongest

Historians in these surveys lower Trump for a mix of reasons: a slim legislative record, extreme polarization, refusal to accept electoral defeat that culminated in a deadly January 6 attack on Congress, and extensive criminal indictments arising from actions during and after office—factors that combine questions of governance, norm erosion, and personal conduct ^{[1] [2]}. Methodologically, experts score presidents across categories like moral authority, crisis leadership, and relations with Congress; Trump’s deficits across several of those categories drive his low composite scores ^{[2] [6]}.

5. Counterarguments, methodological cautions, and implicit agendas

There are dissenting perspectives: partisans and some conservative outlets emphasize policy wins—court appointments, deregulation—and argue contemporary rankings are biased by present‑day politics and historians’ ideological mixes ^{[9] [10]}. Conversely, progressive inventories and popular lists sometimes amplify moral condemnation, reflecting implicit agendas of advocacy; user‑voted rankings and partisan media should therefore be read as expressions of current sentiment rather than disinterested archival judgment ^{[11] [8]}. Most scholarly efforts warn that temporal distance, selection of attributes, and who is asked (historians vs. the public) materially change outcomes ^{[9] [3]}.

6. Conclusion

On the narrow question posed—whether Trump is “the worst, most despicable president since the 1800s”—the empirical record in recent expert surveys supports the claim that he is among the least favorably judged presidents in American history, often ranked at or near the bottom by historians and in composite polls ^{[1] [2] [3]}; nevertheless, determining a single “worst” requires picking criteria, acknowledging that several 19th‑century presidents also have enduring and historically grounded claims to that label for failures of leadership, policy, or inhumanity ^{[5] [4] [12]}.