(PartiallyPolitics.com) – In a recent assessment by a panel of experts, Abraham Lincoln has been named the most esteemed president in U.S. history, with Donald Trump positioned at the opposite end of the spectrum.
This evaluation, known as the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project, marks the third consecutive instance Lincoln has achieved the top ranking, maintaining his premier status from previous surveys conducted in 2015 and 2018.
The organization behind this survey, the Presidential Greatness Project, identifies itself as a leading collective of social science specialists in the realm of presidential history. The survey saw participation from 154 scholars, including members from the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association and academics with recent contributions to peer-reviewed scholarly publications.
Participants rated presidents on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 signifies failure, 50 denotes an average performance, and 100 reflects excellence. Following Lincoln in the top tier were Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson, respectively.
Donald Trump found himself at the bottom of this list, ranking below James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, and William Henry Harrison.
The survey also considered the political leanings and ideologies of the respondents, which, according to the findings, did not significantly influence the overall rankings. However, variations were more pronounced for recent presidents. Notably, conservative or Republican scholars tended to rate Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump more favorably. Reagan, for instance, was placed 5th by Republicans, whereas Democrats rated him 18th. Bush and Trump also saw disparate rankings between the two groups.
Conversely, Democratic scholars rated Barack Obama and Joe Biden higher than their Republican counterparts, with Obama and Biden receiving average ranks of 6th and 13th from Democrats, and 15th and 30th from Republicans, respectively. Interestingly, Bill Clinton was rated higher by Republicans (10th) than by Democrats (12th).
This partisan dynamic influenced the cumulative rankings, positioning Obama 7th, Clinton 12th, Biden 14th, Reagan 16th, and Bush 32nd overall.
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