Dave Eggers

BECAUSE 154 PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIANS NAMED TRUMP THE WORST PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY

In late 2023, historians Brandon Rottinghaus and Justin S. Vaughn surveyed 154 historians and political science professors for the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project. The respondents included current and recent members of the American Political Science Association, along with scholars who had recently published peer-reviewed academic research in key related scholarly journals or academic presses. This survey was also conducted in 2015 and 2018.

These 154 scholars were asked to rate every president on a scale from 1 to 100. Lincoln was ranked highest, at 93.87. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was next at 90.83. Washington’s average was 90.32, putting him in third place. At the bottom of the list, at 10.92, was Donald Trump.

It’s important to note that the survey included scholars who identify themselves as conservative and as Republicans. Among those scholars, the ratings and rankings differed a bit from those identifying as liberal or as Democrats. They ranked Washington first, for example, and Lincoln second. And yet even these Republican and conservative scholars ranked Trump last. Everyone ranked him last.

Should the opinions of 154 scholars who have spent their lives studying presidents and politics mean something? I think they should. If, for example, 154 experts in household plumbing named a certain plumber the worst that has ever done the job, you’d likely steer clear of that particular plumbing practitioner.

Of course, much of Trump’s appeal has been based on his rejection of experts, his anti-intellectualism, and his threats to silence or imprison members of the media, teachers, academics in general, and anyone who criticizes him. So it’s hard to see how this ranking will move the needle among his most ardent supporters.

But independent or reluctant voters should pause to wonder. For any position, would they hire the person agreed upon, by all experts in the field, to be the worst who ever held the job? It boggles the mind that 47 percent of the American electorate is considering rehiring the man considered so incompetent and chaotic that 154 scholars, who disagreed on so many other elements of this survey, agreed on one thing: Trump was, far and away, the worst to ever occupy the White House.

At some point in our nation’s history, we have to get serious about ourselves. We can’t vote the way we did in high school, when we’d nominate the class clown for president of the senior class just to see if we could actually get him elected. Voting for known incompetence was a reckless prank in high school, but one without great consequence.

But voting for president of the United States is a sacred and important act, because this country is a sacred and important place. We have much to be proud of, and our influence around the world is immeasurable. We contain 330 million or so souls, including 79 million children, all of whom deserve competent, stable, rational, and enlightened leadership. 

Thus we need to vote with—at least—the same sober-minded consideration we’d use in hiring an accountant, or a plumber, or any professional in any field. And no serious person would hire a seventy-eight-year-old man with thirty-four felony convictions, twenty-five sexual assault claims against him—many from teenage victims—thousands of lawsuits levied against him, three active state and federal investigations, six bankruptcies, an overt alliance with white supremacist groups, and an attempt to overthrow the world’s oldest democracy when the election of 2020 did not go his way.

If you enjoy Trump, please watch reruns of The Apprentice. But there is a difference between being a reality show host and governing the most powerful country on Earth. And until we can distinguish between those two occupations, we will continue to look reckless and immature in the eyes of much of the world, and we will certainly seem reckless and immature in the judgment of our historical successors.

A serious person who takes this country seriously must look at their options for president this year and see that Kamala Harris is a serious person, too. She is an adult. She will govern the country soberly and steadily and with optimism and hope. That is what we need and what we deserve.

Dave Eggers is the author of The Circle and The Eyes and the Impossible, winner of the Newbery Medal.