“Donald J. Trump makes his ranking debut at the bottom of the list,” the survey states.
On a scale of 0 to 100 for overall greatness, President Trump scored just over 12, coming in dead last among U. S. commanders-in-chief in an expert rankings survey released on President’s Day.
Related: Trump Least Popular President Ever? At This Point, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford And LBJ Were All More Liked
The 2018 Presidents and Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey, which ranks presidents from best to worst, was based on responses from 170 current and recent members of a section of the American Political Science Association, an organization of social science experts.
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Trump was a newcomer to the survey, which was conducted from December 22,2017, to January 16 of this year, and prior to that in 2014.
“Donald J. Trump makes his ranking debut at the bottom of the list,” the survey states. “His average rating is 12.34, which is nearly three points lower than James Buchanan (15.09), who previously occupied the lowest rank.”
Buchanan, who was America’s 15th president, oversaw the debate over slavery and saw the Union split apart after his successor, Abraham Lincoln, was elected.
The top seven spots were unchanged from 2014, with Lincoln coming in first with an average rating of 95.03, followed by George Washington with an average of 92.59 and Franklin Delano Roosevelt with an average of 89.09.
Barack Obama, Trump’s predecessor, ranked eighth—up 10 slots from 2014—with an average rating of 71.13.
Ronald Reagan jumped two spots from 11th to ninth, with an average of 69.24. And Bill Clinton dropped from eighth to 13th, with an average of 64.25.
Although he is the 45th president, Trump was rated as 44th best, which was the lowest ranking because the survey did not count Grover Cleveland’s nonconsecutive terms separately. Trump didn’t even rank well among self-identified Republicans and conservatives, coming in 40th.
Though Trump’s approval ratings have hit record lows, he repeatedly denies their validity. In November, he tweeted that “#FakeNews likes to say we’re in the 30s. They are wrong,” and cited a 46-percent approval rating released by the right wing polling site Rasmussen Reports.
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