In the latest controversial assessment of presidential legacies, the 2024 edition of the Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey has placed current White House resident Joe Biden at the 14th position, outranking notables such as Woodrow Wilson (D) and Ronald Reagan (R). Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has been situated at the very end of the list, occupying the 45th spot.
The survey, which gathered insights from 154 “historians and presidential experts” out of 525 invitations, has drawn criticism for its alleged ideological bias, particularly from conservative circles.
Critics argue that the rankings reflect a distorted historical perspective shaped by contemporary political leanings rather than objective analysis.
Co-directors of the Presidential Greatness Project, University of Houston’s Brandon Rottinghaus and Justin S. Vaughn of Coastal Carolina University, defend the survey’s methodology, which they initiated in 2015.
The survey results indicate a stark ideological divide among the experts. Self-identified conservative scholars rated Biden at No. 30, while liberals placed him at 13th and moderates at 20th. All three groups concurred, however, on Trump’s position, ranking him in the bottom five.
While the survey continues to honor Abraham Lincoln (R) as the nation’s quintessential leader, it has now positioned Franklin Delano Roosevelt (R) above George Washington (I) as the second-greatest president.
Unbelievably, the “racist and anti-semitic” Franklin Roosevelt is shockingly poised to be the next face on Mt. Rushmore, followed by “Barack Obama came in second (11%), followed by a three-way tie between Dwight Eisenhower, James Madison, and John F. Kennedy (4% each), according to the survey.
Franklin Roosevelt faced significant controversies during his presidency, including his attempts to pack the Supreme Court, failures to support anti-lynching legislation, refusing Jewish refugees during the rise of Nazi Germany, seeking unprecedented third and fourth terms in office, and the internment of innocent Japanese Americans during World War II.
It also says the racist/anti Jew FDR (Democrat) is #2? FDR who:
-Invited white 1936 Olympic athletes to visit the White House, but snubbed the great Jesse Owens (because he was black)
-Put innocent Japanese citizens in internment camps
-Refused Jewish refugees during holocaust— Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) February 20, 2024
Here is the finding from the survey that has been criticized for its bias, detailing the overall rankings of U.S. Presidents:
1. Abraham Lincoln (Republican)
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat)
3. George Washington (No party affiliation)
4. Theodore Roosevelt (Republican)
5. Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
6. Harry S. Truman (Democrat)
7. Barack Obama (Democrat)
8. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)
9. Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat)
10. John F. Kennedy (Democrat)
11. James Madison (Democratic-Republican)
12. Bill Clinton (Democrat)
13. John Adams (Federalist)
14. Joe Biden (Democrat)
15. Woodrow Wilson (Democrat)
16. Ronald Reagan (Republican)
17. Ulysses S. Grant (Republican)
18. James Monroe (Democratic-Republican)
19. George H.W. Bush (Republican)
20. John Quincy Adams (Democratic-Republican)
21. Andrew Jackson (Democrat)
22. Jimmy Carter (Democrat)
23. William Howard Taft (Republican)
24. William McKinley (Republican)
25. James K. Polk (Democrat)
26. Grover Cleveland (Democrat)
27. Gerald Ford (Republican)
28. Martin Van Buren (Democrat)
29. Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)
30. James A. Garfield (Republican)
31. Benjamin Harrison (Republican)
32. George W. Bush (Republican)
33. Chester A. Arthur (Republican)
34. Calvin Coolidge (Republican)
35. Richard Nixon (Republican)
36. Herbert Hoover (Republican)
37. John Tyler (Whig)
38. Zachary Taylor (Whig)
39. Millard Fillmore (Whig)
40. Warren G. Harding (Republican)
41. William Henry Harrison (Whig)
42. Franklin Pierce (Democrat)
43. Andrew Johnson (Democrat)
44. James Buchanan (Democrat)
45. Donald Trump (Republican)
Here’s a brief summary of the findings:
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt is highly favored to be the next president featured on Mt. Rushmore.
- Donald Trump is identified as the most polarizing president, while George Washington is considered the least polarizing.
- Jimmy Carter is seen as the most under-rated president, with John F. Kennedy considered the most over-rated.
- William Henry Harrison is noted as the most difficult president to assess, likely due to his very short term in office.
Acknowledging the accomplishments during Trump’s presidency, the survey’s bias becomes more evident. Here are some highlights of achievements from the Trump administration:
- Passed $3.2 trillion in historic tax cuts and relief for hardworking Americans.
- Unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those without a high school diploma all reached record lows.
- Created more than 7 million jobs since the election.
- Nearly 4 million Americans were lifted off of food stamps.
- Poverty rates for African Americans and Hispanic Americans reached record lows.
- Income inequality fell for two straight years, and by the largest amount in over a decade.
- The bottom 50 percent of American households saw a 40 percent increase in net worth.
- Wages rose fastest for low-income and blue-collar workers – a 16 percent pay increase.
- Launched an unprecedented effort to combat human trafficking, arresting thousands of traffickers in just the first year.
- Rebuilt the military with over $2.2 trillion in military spending.
- Established the Space Force, the first new military service in more than 70 years.
- Eliminated America’s reliance on foreign oil for the first time in nearly 65 years; America is now a net energy exporter.
- Agreed to a Phase One trade deal with China, returning billions of dollars into the U.S. economy.
- Replaced NAFTA with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to benefit American workers.
- Secured $1.4 billion for border wall construction in the 2020 budget.
- Reduced high-dose opioid prescriptions by 16 percent during his first year in office.
- Signed the First Step Act, bringing commonsense criminal reform to the American people for the first time in decades, including reducing recidivism and reforming sentencing laws.
- ISIS’s caliphate in Syria was destroyed, and the founder and leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was eliminated.
- Recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the American embassy there, acknowledging reality as the foundation for a peace process.
- Brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, bolstering peace in the Balkans.
- Signed the Abraham Accords, facilitating peace and normalization agreements between Israel and United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
- Most importantly, a good economy and no foreign wars
You can read more of his accomplishments here.
Below is the full report of the survey:
