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Trump tops his own chart
President Donald Trump posted a ranking of U.S. presidents on Truth Social, placing himself alone in a category labeled "The Greatest" above Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“placing himself alone in a category labeled "The Greatest" above Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt”
CNN reported that Trump shared an image on social media declaring himself “the greatest” president — better than even George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
The chart grouped presidents into categories ranging from "Great" and "Near Great" to "Failures," with Trump placing Joe Biden and Barack Obama in the "Failures" category.
Newsweek said Trump’s post put Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson in the next-highest category, while also placing former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter among the "Failures."
Critics flag omissions
CNN said there were “a bunch of problems with it,” including that it put a president with a mid-30s approval rating at the top, and it noted that CNN had reached out to the White House about the list.
The Independent said the chart’s omissions included that it “doesn’t bother to rank a bunch of presidents,” listing no Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman and neither of the Presidents Bush.
The Independent also quoted historian Christopher W. Jones on X saying, “Trump apparently has no opinion on where Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush rank as presidents,” as it described the Life magazine 1948 resemblance.
Newsweek said the chart did not include several presidents, including Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Political stakes and polling
The Independent reported that a CNN poll found 53 percent of GOPers named Trump as the Republican president they admire the most, beating out Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
“53 percent of GOPers named Trump as the Republican president they admire the most”
Newsweek said a recent poll found Republican respondents were significantly more likely to name Trump as the president they most admired than either Ronald Reagan or Lincoln, and it added that Trump’s chart closely resembles a famous presidential ranking published by LIFE magazine in November 1948.
The Independent also cited Michael Bailey, a political scientist at Georgetown, saying Trump is “easily the worst president in U.S. history,” while describing a 2024 survey of historians and political scientists that put Trump at the bottom spot.
In parallel, CNN said Trump’s posting could confirm some of his conservative base’s reservations, while Newsweek said Trump’s standing among Republican voters continues to surpass that of previous GOP presidents.