Biden Ranks 14th Among US Presidents: Trump Lands Dead Last

Analyzed by 154 political experts
Biden scored 63 points…His achievement is “kicking Trump out.”
Trump scored 11 points…”Worse than 19th-century political failures.”

In a survey evaluating the achievements of all presidents among U.S. political experts, President Joe Biden ranked 14th, while former President Donald Trump was last at 45th.

According to The Hill, a U.S. political newspaper and digital media company, on the 19th (local time), the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University surveyed the 2024 Great Presidents Project from November 15 to December 31 last year, targeting members of the American Political Science Association (APSA) and other political experts. The survey received such responses from 154 people.

Respondents evaluated each president’s “overall greatness” on a scale of 0 to 100 points. 0 points indicate failure and 50 and 100 points indicate average and excellence, respectively.

In this survey, President Biden scored 62.66 out of 100, ranking 14th among 45 current and former presidents. This is a higher rank than the 28th President Woodrow Wilson (61.8 points, 15th place) and the 40th President Ronald Reagan (61.62 points, 16th place). On the other hand, former President Trump scored only 10.92 points, remaining at the bottom. His score was about 6 points lower than the 15th President James Buchanan, ranked 44th.

The New York Times (NYT) evaluated that “Trump ranks lower than James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Johnson, the political failures who plunged the U.S. into civil war or messed up its aftermath in the mid-19th century.”

There is also criticism that there are limitations related to President Biden’s relatively high ranking. Professors Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin Vaughn of Coastal Carolina University, who conducted this survey, analyzed that “the most important achievement Biden has made is taking the presidency from Trump, showing traditional presidential leadership again, and preparing to keep his position from his predecessor (Trump) this fall.” It’s not that his achievements after becoming president received good evaluations but that he scored points by pushing Trump out in the last election.

Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln, who scored 93.87 points, was ranked first. Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson followed. Barack Obama, the first black president of the U.S., scored 73.8 points, jumping by nine steps from 16th place last year to 7th place this year.