Historians rank Trump among worst presidents in US history, new C-SPAN survey shows

• Historians ranked Trump lower than any president in the past 150 years in a new C-SPAN survey.
• Trump landed at No. 41 out of 44 presidents.
• Barack Obama came in 10th, while Abraham Lincoln sat in the top spot.

Former President Donald Trump, a former reality-TV star who's famously obsessed with ratings, is unlikely to appreciate C-SPAN's new survey of presidential leadership. Historians who participated in the survey ranked Trump among the worst US presidents.

Out of 44 presidents reviewed for the survey by 142 historians and professional observers of the presidency, Trump landed at 41st, the lowest ranking of any president in the past 150 years. The only presidents who ranked lower than Trump were Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan.

William Henry Harrison, who died 32 days into his presidency and had the shortest tenure of any commander in chief, ranked just above Trump.

This was the first time Trump was ranked in C-SPAN's survey, the fourth in a series. Since 2000, C-SPAN has surveyed historians at every change in a presidential administration.

-CSPAN (@cspan) June 30, 2021

C-SPAN said there was a 50% increase in the number of historians and professional observers who participated from 2017, adding diversity in race, gender, age, and philosophy.

Of the 10 characteristics of leadership the presidents were graded on, Trump's highest ratings were in "public persuasion" and "economic management." His lowest marks were in "moral authority" and "administrative skills," for which Trump received the worst ratings of any US president.

Trump is one of the few single-term presidents and the only president to be impeached twice. Months after leaving office, Trump has still not acknowledged that Joe Biden defeated him fairly. His lies about the election helped provoke the fatal insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 and have fueled divisions in the US while raising fears among scholars about the future of American democracy.

-CSPAN (@cspan) June 30, 2021

Other recent presidents' rankings in the C-SPAN survey changed from 2017. Barack Obama, for example, rose to 10th from 12th; he fell just behind Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy. George W. Bush moved up to 29th after landing in the 33rd spot in 2017.

Abraham Lincoln snagged the top spot, followed by George Washington.