Donald Trump very clearly sees himself as one of history’s greatest presidents. Most other people, though, don’t see it that way.
In a bizarre August social media post, Trump posted a tiered ranking of presidents, naming himself “The Greatest” above the tier he called “Great,” which included Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson.
Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. Credit: Gage Skidmore.
President Donald Trump participates in the swearing-in ceremony for Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz, Friday, April 18, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
Below that were tiers of “Near Great,” “Average,” “Below Average,” and “Failures,” with that last category including Joseph Biden, Barack Obama, Ulysses Grant, Warren G. Harding, and Jimmy Carter.
Commentators noticed some strange things about the graphic, starting with its omissions of several notable presidents — like Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, and both Bushes — and that the graphic seemed to have been lifted, with a few changes, from one published in Life magazine in 1948, which would certainly explain the omission of most of the presidents from the second half of the 20th century.
It was less surprising, however, that Trump ranked himself first.
How Americans See It
Earlier this week, a YouGov poll asked whether respondents agree with Trump’s assessment of himself and other presidents throughout history.
The polling company noted in its newsletter that the survey was prompted by Trump’s weird Truth Social post and asked respondents to rank presidents in the same categories Trump used in his graphic: great, near great, average, below-average, and failure.
YouGov asked Americans to rate what it calls the “best-known” presidents.
The results showed that, of the presidents in the survey, 57 percent called Abraham Lincoln great, while 52 percent said the same about George Washington.
37 percent rated John F. Kennedy “great,” 34 percent rated Franklin Roosevelt great, and 32 percent rated Theodore Roosevelt great.
29 percent rated Thomas Jefferson “great,” while 17 percent called Dwight Eisenhower “great.”
President Joe Biden speaks at the NAACP Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
Of the recent, non-Trump presidents, 31 percent called Barack Obama great, 27 percent said so of Ronald Reagan, while 14 percent used that term for Jimmy Carter and 11 percent for Bill Clinton.
Both Bushes ranked “great” in the single digits, with George H.W. Bush at 8 percent and his son, George W., at 9 percent.
On the negative side, 48 percent called Trump a “failure” — the most of any president in the survey — while only 20 percent called him great.
For his predecessor Joe Biden, 35 percent called him a failure, while 10 percent called him great.
Only 5 percent called Richard Nixon “great,” with 28 percent calling him a failure. And ironically, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Trump’s Justice Department has launched a review of Nixon’s crimes, spurred on by the work of a revisionist Watergate historian.
The survey also noted that for many long-ago presidents before the 20th century who aren’t founding fathers or Abraham Lincoln—including Grover Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge, William McKinley, and James K. Polk—most Americans admit they don’t have much of an opinion.
YouGov notes that for most presidents in living memory, partisan considerations cloud opinions, whereas for presidents further back in history, that’s much less the case.
The Historians’ Take
The C-Span Presidential Historians’ Survey, last taken in 2021, between Trump’s two terms, asked historians to rank the presidents. It produced the same top four as the last three surveys since the survey began in 2020: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt, in that order.
Barack Obama. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
In 2020, FDR was second and Washington third, but otherwise the top four have been the same every time historians have taken the survey.
The rest of the top ten consisted of Eisenhower, Truman, Jefferson, Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama.
As for Trump?
In 2020, historians ranked him fourth from the bottom—based on his first term alone — ahead of only Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan.
The four presidents ahead of Trump were William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, and Warren G. Harding.
The 2021 survey had promised a follow-up in 2025, but it doesn’t appear that survey was ever conducted.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has written thousands of articles on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
