The leader of the free world has a achieved a remarkable distinction, In addition to being the most mocked man in the world, in less than six months he has managed to set an unbreakable record — singlehandedly reordering American presidential history. Fond of imagining himself setting records that will never be bettered — Trump now seems to have actually earned one. He has elevated the likes of his most corrupt and inept predecessors — men like William Howard Taft, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, John Tyler, Herbert Hoover, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Martin Van Buren, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush. Andrew Jackson, and James Buchanan to new heights. None of them is any longer in the remotest danger of ever again being regarded by history as the worst U.S. president. That honor is now certain to go to No. 45.
Historians are far from agreement on the relative basis for ranking past presidents and they often differ in their rank order for the previous 44 www.c-span.org/…. Presidential historians differ mostly in ranking some of the ‘lesser presidents’ in our past — those who simply failed to seize opportunities — men whose moments in history just passed them by and those who abused power or were corrupt, but also accomplished some worthy goals.
Those scholarly debates are sure to continue, but we have now entered a whole new universe. To rephrase a bit of dialog from Billy Beane’s character played by Brad Pitt in the film Moneyball, —
there have been good presidents and there have been bad presidents - and then there is 50 feet of crap and somewhere underneath all that crap, there is this president.
For a bit of historical perspective, it is instructive to review the previous rankings of some of our really awful U.S. Presidents, every one of them now worsted by Trump. The C-Span Presidential Historians Survey has been completed 3 times in the last 17 years (2000, 2009, 2017). The 2017 survey includes responses from 90 presidential scholars and historians. Presidents were ranked in the following 10 categories:
The 2017 C-SPan Presidential Poll was advised by
Lincoln, Washington and FDR rank at the top. Here is the current Countdown of the 10 Worst Presidents, based on the 2017 C-Span Presidential Survey.www.c-span.org/...
At No. 10 —
Martin Van Buren (1837-1841, 8th POTUS)
Van Buren was Andrew Jackson’s VP. Van Buren succeeded Jackson in office and then eagerly completed Jackson’s agenda for the dispossession and forced removal of the southeastern Indian Tribes from their traditional homelands, an event we now call the ‘Trail of Tears.’ Van Buren boasted of his success with this in an address to Congress on Jan 3, 1838, and proudly had this to say:
“It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session, with a view to the long-standing controversy with them, have had the happiest effects.”
He continued the Second Seminole War against Florida Seminoles who refused to remove the the west. Van Buren also failed to protect the religious freedom of Mormons in Missouri, opposed abolition of slavery and failed to marshal an effectively federal response to a nationwide financial panic in 1837 earning the nickname "Martin Van Ruin." All that, and he ranks as just the 10th worst president in this poll.
At No. 9 -
Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885, 21st POTUS)
Unelected, Arthur was a party hack who aspired to be VP. He assumed the duties of POTUS after the assassination of James Garfield and was essentially a do nothing placeholder. Arthur rose to political power inside New York’s Republican political machine, where he had a reputation for cronyism, corruption and kickbacks. Arthur allowed settlers and cattle ranchers to encroach on Native American territory in the west, including the Crow Creek Reservation in the Dakota Territory. Following his death in 1886, the New York World newspaper summed up the Arthur presidency this way “No duty was neglected in his administration, and no adventurous project alarmed the nation."
At No. 8
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933, 31st POTUS)
Hoover rose to public prominence when President Coolidge appointed him to coordinate the response to the Great Flood of 1927, a disaster that displaced 500,000 people in the Mississippi Valley. Hoover masterfully manipulated the press to preserve his image as a humanitarian during the flood relief efforts, all the while hiding rampant discrimination and mistreatment of African-American’s who were pressed into flood relief labor while being denied relief supplies. Shortly after taking office, the stock market crash of 1929 and worldwide economic depression that followed doomed Hoover— who utterly failed to marshall an effective federal response to that crisis.
"given the chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, we shall soon with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation."
At No. 7
Millard Fillmore (1850-1853, 13th POTUS)
Fillmore assumed office following the July 9, 1850 death of President Zachary Taylor and summarily fired every member of Taylor's cabinet. The Compromise of 1850, passed Congress and was signed by Fillmore, reversing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had permanently barred slavery in the west, north of Missouri’s southern border. Fillmore’s most noble act as President was in December 1851 when he helped to extinguish a blaze at the Library of Congress and then signed a bill to fund the replacement of the books that had been destroyed. Fillmore willingly supported the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed for the capture and return of escaped slaves to their master’s in the south. Fillmore earns his rank as the 7th worst president on this issue alone. The New York Times opined that it was Fillmore's "misfortune to see in slavery a political and not a moral question."
At No. 6
William Henry Harrison (March 4, 1841- April 4, 1841, 9th POTUS)
President Harrison served as POTUS for just 31 days. The inauguration on March 4, 1841, was a bitterly cold day, on which Harrison declined to don a jacket or hat. He made a two-hour speech, in the cold and then attended three inauguration balls. Harrison fell ill immediately afterwards and died of complications from pneumonia. He was the first president to die in office. With the shortest tenure in United States presidential history, one might ask how could he rate so low a position on this list? Perhaps as a result of his prior career as Territorial Governor of Indiana where he was actively pro-slavery and supervised eleven treaties with Indian leaders, disenfranchising tribes of 60 million acres of Indian lands.
At No. 5
John Tyler (1841-1845, 10th POTUS)
Following the death of William Henry Harrison, his VP John Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency without being elected to that office. Because of the short duration of Harrison's presidency, Tyler served longer than any other president in U.S. history who was never elected to the office. Tyler’s term was beset with lingering effects of the economic depression of 1837. Most members of Tyler's cabinet resigned in September 1841, after he vetoed two successive attempts to re-establish a central bank for the United States. Historians have praised his foreign policy but generally viewed Tyler as hapless and inept. Tyler was subject to many mocking nicknames, including "His Accidency"
At No. 4
Warren G. Harding (1921-1923, 29th POTUS)
Harding was a small-town Ohio newspaper publisher who had served a single term in the U.S. Senate. He was a pawn of Republican Party bosses who supported his candidacy because Harding was malleable, unassumingly bland and could be relied on to deliver his pivotal home state of Ohio in the election. Harding promised a “return to normalcy,” which apparently meant graft and corruption. After the election, Harding announced he was going on vacation, and that no decisions about cabinet appointments would be made until he returned That Texas vacation included golf and fishing as a guest of a man he would then appoint as director of the U.S. Mint. According to Princeton historian Kevin Kruse, Harding’s cabinet choices “across the board were perhaps the worst in American history.” Harding supported eugenics and opposed “social equality.” Harding argued for presidential control of tariffs and reduced income tax rates, On the advice of his Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who observed that money was driven underground or abroad by high tax rates, Mellon and Harding curiously concluded that lower tax rates would actually increase tax revenues. A notorious womanizer and philanderer, Harding died of a brain aneurysm halfway through his term, although rumors abounded that he had actually been poisoned by his wife.
At No. 3
Franklin Pierce (1853-1857, 14th POTUS)
A northern Democrat, Pierce was an expansionist, vowing that his administration "will not be deterred by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." He attempted to annex Cuba and signed the Gadsden Purchase acquiring SW New Mexico and Southern Arizona from Mexico. Pierce supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed those states to decide for themselves if slavery would be permitted. Pierce suffered from depression and was also a heavy drinker for much of his life. He died of liver disease in 1869.
At No. 2
Andrew Johnson (1865-1869, 17th POTUS)
On Saturday March 4, 1865, at Lincoln’s second inauguration, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as VP. Johnson had begun drinking the night before and gave a rambling incoherent 17 minute speech before the Senate, disgracing himself and embarrassing the President. Johnson succeeded to the office of the President just 42 days later, following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Historians still wonder whether Johnson was one of the targets of that conspiracy or a co-conspirator. Mary Todd Lincoln believed “that miserable inebriate Johnson” was complicit in the assassination plot.
Johnson had a strained relationship with congress during the difficult reconstruction years following the Civil War and was impeached in 1868, although the Senate vote fell one shy of conviction. None of the Republicans who voted to acquit Johnson ever held elected office again. Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, guaranteeing citizenship without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, only to have his veto overturned by Congress. Those principles were codified in the 14th Amendment, which was also opposed by Johnson, but eventually ratified by 2/3rds of the states on July 20, 1868,
Finally, No. 1 — Our worst president until now.
James Buchanan (1857-1861, 15th POTUS)
Buchanan vowed to protect the institution of slavery which he described as “happily, a matter of but little practical importance." and allied with the South in attempting to gain the admission of Kansas as a slave state. He made war on the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan’s failure to deal with secession is universally ranked as the worst mistake ever made by a president. The day before his death, Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory" but every survey since 1948 has ranked him last or next to last among all the presidents.
Richard M. NIxon, George W. Bush and silent Calvin Coolidge don’t make the C-Span scholars 10 worst list. Coolidge perhaps because he was so very silent and absent, A lesson Trump will surely persist in failing to learn. Cooledge is noted for saying "I don’t recall any candidate for President who ever injured himself very much by not talking." He spent his summers in the Black Hills — where he enjoyed regularly dressing up like a hollywood cowboy and not answering reporters questions. Coolidge wisely refused to allow the press to quote him or his spokesmen. Nor would he allow reporters to take shorthand notes when he briefed them on background — Like Trump, Coolidge had a way with words.
"We have got so many regulatory laws already that I feel we would be just as well off if we didn’t have any more."
How does the 45th president measure up to these ignoble predecessors? Well he is certainly unpopular
After the women’s march on January 21st, people joked that he had been rejected by more women in one day than any man in history; he was mocked in newspapers, on television, in cartoons, was the butt of a million jokes, and his every tweet was instantly met with an onslaught of attacks and insults by ordinary citizens gleeful to be able to speak sharp truth to bloated power.
Polls show a continuing decline in public approval — his popularity has dropped below 39%, while those disapproving remain above 56% — that 17 point split is sure to widen as his budget is debated, health care insurance is stripped from millions, the public absorbs the consequences of his retreat from the Paris Climate Accords and Mueller and the Senate intensify their probes of Russian/Trump collusion in the election.
A few days before he ‘pulled out’ of the Paris Climate Accord Rebecca Solnit called the 45th President of the United States “The Most Mocked Man in the World” lithub.com/… he promptly provided yet more examples of why that title will be impossible to shake.
Trump said, "As someone who cares deeply about our environment, I cannot in good conscience support a deal which punishes the United States," and "the Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States."
"This is Trump. This is Trumpism, I would say this is Trump at his best," said Stephen Moore, a former economic adviser to the president's campaign, who is now a CNN commentator. "When he talked about pulling out of the Paris accord, it was met by thunderous ovations from Trump voters."
"Trump has isolated our country on the world stage, ceding our leadership position and our economic advantage on clean energy to India and China, and justifying it all by chanting a slogan from a baseball hat," warned Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.
The muslim ban, end to the nuclear deal with Iran, drifting away from the NATO Alliance, the Border Wall, the healthcare reversal, a budget that undermines public education, guts support for higher education, science, arts and the humanities, the end to net neutrality, sale of your browsing history to the highest bidders, Tax Cuts for Billionaires, and that Swamp Thing — And then — there is the corruption, self dealing and black hole of ethics violations — Oh Oh, and that collusion with a malevolent hostile foreign power to subvert the election and who knows what else —
When future presidents enter office, they will arrive in Washington D.C. with one certainty — no matter how inept, pernicious, incompetent, misinformed, malicious, blundering, maniacal, corrupt, clueless, stupid, vain, ignorant or out of touch they are, or how badly they mangle the job, they could not possibly be worse than D. J. T. — Old No. 45 is certain now to forever reign as the very worst president in American History —
His failings and flaws are quickly growing beyond listing, but here are a few of the reasons he has earned this distinction in such a brief time in office:
Personal and corporate ethics violations (too numerous to list— both before and after the election from pussy grabbing to fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, violation of the emoluments clause of the constitution.
Efforts to rescind or sabotage the Affordable Care Act — risking affordable coverage for 23 million americans.
Urging congress to repeal Dodd-Frank regulatory reforms in banking and stripping consumer protections enacted in 2010, threatening future banking crises.
Russia — Collusion In Interference with the 2017 Election — aiding a psy-ops effort funded in part by Dark Money to win the 2016 election.
Attempting to amass state by state voter history in the guise of a voter fraud investigation—allegedly aimed at uncovering fraud and illegal voting that he alone sees evidence for.
Accusing the former FBI Director of perjury — or lying in his open testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee — of being dishonest and cowardly — despite all evidence of loosing the confidence of his organization
Obstruction of Justice in effort to hide the Trump campaign’s cooperation/collusion with Russia — and the quid pro quos — lifting sanctions against Russia for occupying Crimea and Ukraine
War on the Environment — Pulling the U.S. out of Paris Accord — Pruitt as EPA Administrator, willingness to abandon protections for endangered species, eagerness to dump meaningful environmental oversight and public involvement in infrastructure projects.
Shifting Infrastructure Improvements to the States and Cities and private funding sources to avoid federal environmental regulations
Passing the buck on the War in Afghanistan to the pentagon — abdicating his duty as commander in chief.
Dismantling the Administrative State through the budget and staffing process (starving the beast they used to call it) — failure to nominate deputy and under secretary positions — cutting or zeroing out the budgets of agencies and departments.
Muslim Travel Ban — Promoting fear and isolation and unconstitutional actions. The roundup and deportation of foreign born residents without citizenship, including children promised protection under DACA.
Failure to act in response to food crisis in Yemen, Somalia and Sudan.
Perpetuating Dark Money — with appointment of Neil Gorsuch, Supreme Court is unlikely to reconsider Citizens United.
Militarization of space and sabre rattling towards North Korea and Iran.
An unbridled war on the 1st amendment freedom of the press — declaring any reporting that is critical or questioning ‘Fake News’ — the the pursuit of the Russia story as a witch hunt.
Even Vladimir Putin whom Trump will meet later this week recently sent his congratulations — Mr. President ‘Don’t Worry — Be Happy’
Adding daily to his list of ignoble achievements — there is no telling how much more we can add to this list in the coming weeks.
So, on the 4th of July, 2017, let’s all raise a glass and celebrate, give Donald a hearty well done, for he has finally set a legitimate record, one all his own — a record that will never be broken. Mr. President, your ideas for Greatness and America First — are certain to make you the worst president ever.