Historians rank Trump last in 'presidential greatness' survey

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

The ghosts of James Buchanan and William Henry Harrison are feeling pretty good right now.

Professors from the University of Houston and Boise State University sent current and recent members of the presidential politics section of the American Political Science Association a survey on presidential greatness, asking 170 historians to grade each president. In bad news for President Trump, he came in dead last, bumping Buchanan — faulted for bringing the United States to the brink of civil war — up a spot. Abraham Lincoln came out on top, followed by George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson, while Harrison, who died of pneumonia just 31 days into his term, joined Trump and Buchanan at the bottom.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.