Donald Trump rated worst US president ever, Joe Biden 14th best
Donald Trump rated the worst president ever according to US political scientists, as he is slammed for failing to condemn Vladimir Putin for the death of Alexei Navalny.
Donald Trump has been rated the worst US president ever by American political science experts, as Republicans and Democrats slam the former Republican president for failing to publicly condemn Vladimir Putin for Alexei Navalny’s death in a Russian prison.
Joe Biden debuted as the 14th greatest president of all time (Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is counted as the 22nd and 24th president from a total of 46) on a periodic Presidential Greatness Survey, ahead of Ronald Reagan, based on the personal rankings of 154 members of the American Political Science Association.
“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, two university professors who shepherded the survey, in the Los Angeles Times.
Published to coincide with President’s Day, a federal public holiday, Mr Trump’s position, last, and Abraham Lincoln’s position, first, had not changed since the survey was last published in 2018, during the midpoint of Mr Trump’s presidency.
“Every modern Republican president has dropped in the survey, including the transformational Ronald Reagan, and George HW Bush, who led the nation’s last decisive military victory,” the two professors from Texas and South Carolina also pointed out.
Other notable changes included Franklin Delano Roosevelt's moving into second place ahead of George Washington, while Dwight Eisenhower dropped from sixth to eight; Barack Obama meanwhile surged from 16th to 7th, as Andrew Jackson, widely considered the first “populist” US president, dropped 12 places to 21st.
The list emerged as Mr Trump triggered a fresh burst of criticism across the political spectrum after likening Russia to the US, and himself to the dead Alexi Navalny, an imprisoned Russian politician whose death last week prompted accusations from Mr Biden down that Vladimir Putin had had him murdered.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction,” Mr Trump said on social media on Monday (Tuesday AEDT).
In an earlier post on Truth Social, his preferred platform, Mr Trump, who is facing four criminal indictments and potential jail, including for election interference and mishandling classified documents, simply wrote “Biden: Trump: Putin: Navalny”.
The former president and presumptive GOP nominee for president has frequently attracted criticism for refusing to sufficiently condemn Russia and Mr Putin in particular, famously for instance refusing to brand the Russian leader a “killer” in an interview with Bill O’Reilly in a 2017.
“There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent? Take a look at what we’ve done too,” Mr Trump said at the time, comments that Nikki Haley, Mr Trump’s last remaining challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, has been promoting on social media since the 47-year-old Russian’s death last week.
“Donald Trump could have condemned Vladimir Putin for being a murderous thug. Trump could have praised Navalny’s courage. Instead, he stole a page from liberals’ playbook, denouncing America and comparing our country to Russia,” she said on Monday, after accusing her former boss of siding with a “murderous thug who wants to destroy America”.
The attacks came after a difficult few weeks for Mr Trump, who was fined more than $US500m by Manhattan courts for fraud and defamation, and pilloried by foreign policy experts after saying at a political rally he had told a NATO leader he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to allies who didn’t pull their weight in defence spending.
The former president, who is leading Mr Biden in most national polls by small margins, will face off against Ms Haley in South Carolina’s Republican primary this weekend, which he is expected to win by around 30 percentage points, according to an average of major polls tracked by FiveThirtyEight.
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