Who is the worst President in US history? Trump is easily the dumbest, but his death count is only a third of Buchanan’s ... so I’ll go with James
Buchanan could have prevented the Civil War, and essentially encouraged it through both his actions and bully pulpit statements. Johnson was the best running mate for the War and worst president possible for the Reconstruction, for all the times people can handwave Gilded Age and World War era segregation due to integration not being politically feasible, he had a Congress that was electorally incentivized and militarily poised to aggressively push it while all the potential opponents weren't even readmitted yet: he's about as close to a single root cause for the next century of Jim Crow as you can find. Harding to me doesn't even register: even though his scandals are the most similar to the types of transgressions modern presidents can make, and should therefore serve as the scariest plausible example, while Johnson's and Buchanan's choices were in the face of challenges most presidents wouldn't encounter since then.
I still don’t think we know half of the story with Trump. Once he leaves office if they don’t destroy every document in government I think he’ll surpass Buchanan. Worst than Buchanan will be when we find out pretty explicitly that the man is clearly a traitor.
Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson and Grant all were terrible Presidents. Really James K. Polk was the only good President for a 50-60 year span between Polk and Cleveland.
List is incomplete without W and Hoover and Nixon. Methinks that history will be most unkind to Trump.
I think I need to change my vote: imma say W. was the worst. Trump has done a lot for the Republican agenda, but if you remember, after clinton the government had a surplus and what did W. do with it, he when on a military spending spree the likes we will never know. I used to like barack, but I only think he was slightly better than the average now. He gave us Obamacare and then he screwed us in every other way. Clinton has probably been the best president in my lifetime, because although he let his wife corrupt their legacy and the clinton foundation is corruptor than a Jimmy swaggart ministry, while clinton was in office he left the country better than it was before he entered into office.
Trump will certainly be in the bottom 10-20% of President's after he leaves office. His positions on certain issues may look better or worse over time, but his level of corruption will not... and that will hurt him. His level of corruption is worse than Nixon or Grant, and is arguably worse than Buchanan and Johnson.
"Is Trump the Worst US President?" https://200proofliberals.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-trump-worst-us-president.html
I'll repeat what I said in another thread. He's combined the corruption of Harding with the disrespect for separation of power as Johnson. Also need to add in the obliviousness during a crisis as Buchanan. To be fair to Buchanan the Secession didn't happen under his watch whereas COVID-19 has so far all been under Trump's watch.
After Trump's second year as President I thought he was probably behind Harding and Hoover. After the failed Coup he's moved to the front of the line. History will judge US, the people who managed to elect him harshly.
