вЂњIf I had to predict where historiography would go, I think people would have to recognize that Trumpism - nativism and white supremacy - has deep roots in American history,вЂќ Mr. Rauchway personally regards as the worst president of all. вЂњI think he has some stiff competitionвЂќ in Andrew Johnson, whom Mr. Trump would вЂњcrash the bottom fiveвЂќ on the presidential rankings, but that the bottom spot itself was uncertain. вЂњHistory will look with grave disfavor on President Trump for the crisis he created,вЂќ she said.ДЇor his part, Mr. Trump will be remembered for his failures: how poorly he handled Covid-19 and how disgracefully he behaved after the election. But to the extent that a presidentвЂ™s legacy is determined by his ability to rise to a crisis, Mr. The presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose most recent book, вЂњLeadership: In Turbulent Times,вЂќ looks at how four presidents confronted tough moments in history, said that it normally takes a generation to evaluate a leader. Wilentz, citing the radicalization of the Republican Party, the inept response to the pandemic and what he called вЂњthe brazen, almost psychedelic mendacity of the man.вЂќ вЂњHeвЂ™s in a whole other category in terms of the damage heвЂ™s done to the Republic,вЂќ said Mr. Trump was the worst president in history, hands down. Sean Wilentz, a professor of American history at Princeton University, said that Mr. вЂњIf the opening paragraph of any discussion starts about being impeached twice, and the second sentence is about the coronavirus, and the third is about partisanship - thatвЂ™s going to be very hard to overcome.вЂќ вЂњSpeaking in terms of this survey, it would be surprising if Trump was meaningfully rehabilitated,вЂќ Mr. вЂњBut from the election forward, I donвЂ™t see how anyone could feel that TrumpвЂ™s behavior was anything but reprehensible or that he hasnвЂ™t completely destroyed any legacy he would have left.вЂќ Cooper Jr., professor emeritus of history at Louisiana State University. вЂњI would say that before the election it depended on oneвЂ™s political outlook,вЂќ with conservatives applauding his tax cuts, deregulation policies and judicial appointments, said William J. Trump was a highly divisive president, of course, and one of the confounding things about him was how two people could look at his behavior and make completely different assessments. Trump as the second worst, just ahead of Andrew Johnson.)

And on Twitter last week, Chris Hayes of MSNBC took the presidential-ranking parlor game to his followers, asking them to list the вЂњfive worst presidents of all time.вЂќ (He put Mr. Various polls periodically ask regular citizens to weigh in.

The Siena College Research Institute regularly compiles ranked lists of all the American presidents, based on the composite views of scholars. Presidential ranking may be a water-cooler exercise for historians, but it is also an official institutional pursuit. вЂњHe has invented a whole new category, a subbasement that no one knew existed.вЂќ вЂњAndrew Johnson and Nixon would be the two others in the worst category, and I think Trump has them beat pretty handily, too,вЂќ he added. вЂњI already feel that he is the worst,вЂќ said Ted Widmer, professor of history at the City University of New York, noting that as bad as Buchanan was - and he was very bad indeed - he was вЂњnot as aggressively bad as Trump.вЂќ вЂњThese will definitely go down in history books, and they are not good.вЂќ вЂњTrump was the first president to be impeached twice and the first to stir up a mob to try to attack the Capitol and disrupt his successor from becoming president,вЂќ said Eric Rauchway, professor of history at the University of California, Davis. Trump, it appears that even the woefully inadequate Buchanan has some serious competition for the spot at the bottom. ThereвЂ™s hapless, hated Franklin Pierce doomed, dead-after-32-days William Henry Harrison and inevitably, James Buchanan, often considered worst of all because of how badly he bungled the lead-up to the Civil War.Д«ut as historians consider the legacy of Donald J. Harding, responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal.

ThereвЂ™s Andrew Johnson, whose abysmal behavior during Reconstruction led to the first presidential impeachment. In the race to the bottom for the title of worst American president, the same few sorry names appear at the end of almost every list, jockeying for last place.

How old is trump