According to a recent poll of historians by C-SPAN, Donald Trump is the 41st best president of all time, and the worst living president, in United States history, failing to surpass the ignominy of presidents Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.

Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt topped the list of more than 140 scholars, historians, academics and lawyers from around the country.  C-SPAN has produced the poll in 2000, 2009 and 2017.

The highest-ranked living president is Barack Obama at #10.  Bill Clinton ranked 19th.  George HW Bush came in 21st; his son, George W. Bush ranked 29th, with Jimmy Carter between them at 26th. 

The pollsters asked the historians to grade the presidents on ten characteristics of leadership based on a 1-to-100 scale.  Trump received his lowest scored in Administrative Skills (22.8, the lowest of all time) and Moral Authority (18.7, also the lowest of all time).  He didn’t crack 50 points in any category, but his strongest were Public Persuasion (43.9) and Economic Management (42.7).  Trump’s point total:  312.

Obama, on the other hand, scored 664 total points, with his strongest being Pursued Equal Justice for All (78.2) and Public Persuasion (76.3).  His weakest areas were Relations with Congress (46.9) and International Relations (56.7).

“C-SPAN’s success in assembling a truly diverse group of historians and professional observers of the presidency only strengthens an already strong poll,” said Amity Shlaes, chairman of the Calvin Coolidge Foundation.