U.S. President Donald Trump ranks last in the Presidential Greatness Study 2018, which was published by professors from the University of Houston and Boise State University.
“Donald J. Trump debuts in the ranking at the bottom of the list, his average score is 12.34, almost three points below James Buchanan (15.09), who had previously occupied the lowest position,” the study disclosed.
The survey asked respondents to grade Trump in the following areas: his presidency overall, legislative accomplishments, foreign policy leadership, embodying institutional norms, and communicating with the public.
The president received three Fs and two Ds, scoring his highest grade in communicating with the public and his lowest on embodying institutional norms. In a more specific cross-section, self-identifying Republicans gave him three Ds and two Cs – the higher marks were in communicating with the public and foreign policy leadership.
Republicans and conservatives ranked Washington in the top spot and liberals, Democrats and independents chose Lincoln.
The top seven presidents have been unchanged since 2014. They are Abraham Lincoln (95.05) and George Washington (92.59), followed by Franklin D. Roosevelt (89.09) ), Theodore Roosevelt (81.39), Thomas Jefferson (79.54), Dwight D. Eisenhower (75.43) and Harry S. Truman (75.15).
Franklin Roosevelt was rated highly across the political spectrum. Reagan received high ranks from conservatives and Republicans but fell short with Democrats and liberals. Obama experience the reverse.
Former President Barack Obama moved up 10 positions and is ranked eighth with 71.13 points. Obama was ranked 18th in 2014. Ronald Reagan moved from 11th up to 9th in the ranking, while Bill Clinton fell from 8th to 13th.
The study garnished 170 responses from members of the Presidents and Executive Policy Section of the American Political Science Association. The organization established a ranking of all American presidents, rated on a scale of 0 to 100.
Professors Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin S. Vaughn of Boise State University were the curators of the survey. They released the results on Monday.
