Recent presidents are more likely to be divided by their partisanship in ranking
According to a new ranking by self-styled “experts”, Abraham Lincoln was America’s greatest President, and Donald Trump ranked last.
Lincoln was ranked first in the 2024 Presidential Greatness Survey expert survey, for the third consecutive time. He also ranked top in 2015 and 2018.
According to a press release by the Presidential Greatness Project (which touts itself to be the “foremost group of social scientists experts in presidential politics”), the 154 respondents included “current or recent members of Presidents & Executive Politics Sections of the American Political Science Association…as scholars who have published peer-reviewed research in key academic journals and academic presses.”
The respondents ranked presidents from 0 to 100, where 0 was a failure and 50 was average. George Washington ranked third, Theodore Roosevelt rated fourth, and Thomas Jefferson rated fifth.
Trump ranked last in the survey. He was worse than James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Peirce, William Henry Harrison, and James Buchanan.
The release states that the political affiliation of respondents and their ideology did not make a significant difference in the overall rankings. However, there were some exceptions, mostly with the recent presidents.
Abraham Lincoln has topped the list once again.
Ronald Reagan was ranked 18th among Democrat respondents. George W. Bush was rated 33rd, and Donald Trump 45th.
Bill Clinton was rated higher by Republican respondents than by Democrats.
This division resulted in a ranking of 7th place for Obama, 12th place for Clinton, 14th place for Biden, and 16th position for Reagan.
