Abraham Lincoln topped the list of U.S. presidents while Donald Trump was ranked last, according to the results of the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project expert survey released this weekend.
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The purpose of the survey, which was previously conducted in 2015 and 2018, was to “create a ranking of presidential greatness that covered all presidents from George Washington to Joe Biden,” according to the co-directors of the Presidential Greatness Project, University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus and Coastal Carolina University political science professor Justin Vaughn.
Respondents were asked to rate each U.S. president on a scale of zero to 100 for their “overall greatness,” with zero being failure, 50 being average and 100 being great. The ratings were averaged for each president and then ranked from highest average to lowest.
Lincoln placed first with a 95.03 average, followed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in at No. 2 with 90.83, George Washington at No. 3 with 90.32, Teddy Roosevelt at No. 4 with 78.58 and Thomas Jefferson at No. 5 with 77.53, the survey results show.
At the bottom of the rankings, Trump received the lowest rating with a 10.92 average, behind James Buchanan at No. 44 with 16.71, Andrew Johnson at No. 43 with 21.56, Franklin Pierce at No. 42 with 24.6, William Henry Harrison at No. 41 with 26.01 and Warren Harding at No. 40 with 27.76, according to the Presidential Greatness Project.
President Joe Biden was ranked in the top third of the list, placing at No.14 with a rating of 62.7.
Newsweek reached out via email on Sunday to Trump’s representatives for comment on the survey results.
This year’s results are based on 154 responses from scholars “whose work engages presidential politics” and who are members of the American Political Science Association, according to a statement released by the University of Houston. The survey was conducted online via Qualtrics from November 15 to December 31, 2023.
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Vaughn told Newsweek in an interview on Sunday night that there is a “rich history” of similar rankings but noted those focused “largely on historians” while the Presidential Greatness Project polled “political scientist experts on the presidency.”
“Lincoln has topped the list all three times we have conducted this survey,” Vaughn said. “Trump was last in 2018 as well, but not included in 2015 because Obama was still president. Lincoln is usually number one, regardless of the survey organization, though occasionally George Washington and even Franklin Delano Roosevelt get ranked number one.”
The survey also ranked Trump as the “most polarizing” U.S. President.
The results ignited a firestorm of criticism on social media from supporters of Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, who blasted the survey’s credibility and relevance.
When asked about the backlash the survey results have garnered, Vaughn told Newsweek that the skepticism is “natural.”
“Disagreement seems to be particularly strong when we’re talking about current or very recent presidents, and especially so in this instance,” Vaughn said. “One thing worth noting is that many of the characteristics that some supporters of President Trump like the most about him – his willingness to break norms, his style of communication, etc. – are the ones that caused him to be negatively assessed in this survey.”
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Vaughn said that surveys are interesting because they “capture a snapshot in time” but highlight how views evolve.
“Presidents like Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson have been slipping in recent years in our surveys and others, and that tells us a lot about the American presidency and how expectations surrounding it are changing.”
