When Donald Trump left office, he was the least popular President in recent history. President Joe Biden's polling numbers could be better, but he's getting credit from historians for evicting Trump from the Oval Office. Lumpy isn't going to take this very well. Ketchup will be hurled at the walls of Mar-a-Lago.
The New York Times reports:
A new poll of historians coming out on Presidents' Day weekend ranks Mr. Biden as the 14th-best President in American history, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan and Ulysses S. Grant. While that may not get Mr. Biden a spot on Mount Rushmore, it certainly puts him well ahead of Mr. Trump, who places dead last as the worst President ever.
Indeed, Mr. Biden may owe his place in the top third in part to Mr. Trump. Although he has claims to a historical legacy by managing the end of the Covid pandemic; rebuilding the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure; and leading an international coalition against Russian aggression, Mr. Biden's signature accomplishment, according to the historians, was evicting Mr. Trump from the Oval Office.
"Biden's most important achievements may be that he rescued the presidency from Trump, resumed a more traditional style of presidential leadership and is gearing up to keep the office out of his predecessor's hands this fall," wrote Justin Vaughn and Brandon Rottinghaus, the college professors who conducted the survey and announced the results in The Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Trump might not care much what a bunch of academics think, but for what it's worth he fares badly even among the self-identified Republican historians. Finishing 45th overall, Mr. Trump trails even the mid-19th-century failures who blundered the country into a civil war or botched its aftermath like James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce and Andrew Johnson.
Former President Barack Obama did well, too. Obama finished at No. 7 this year, up nine places since 2015. While it doesn't say this in its findings, it seems Americans resist Presidents who deliberately sow chaos and create division. We want to live our lives and rest assured that the guy we voted into office is doing his job. Presidents work for us. It's not the other way around.
Unsurprisingly, Fox News forgot to mention in their X-post that Trump came in dead last.
