New Survey of Scholars Ranks Biden as a Top 15 All-Time President — While Trump Comes in Dead Last
AP Photo/Alex Brandon; AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
It’s not exactly a poll, but a new survey conducted by presidential scholars ranked President Joe Biden among the top 15 American presidents of all time — and ranked former President Donald Trump dead last.
The survey, entitled the “Presidential Greatness Project,” was conducted by professors Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston and Justin S. Vaughn of Coastal Carolina University in honor of the Presidents Day holiday, and it put Biden in 14th place out of all 45 presidents who have held the office. Biden beat out Republican favorite Ronald Reagan, who placed 16th, while his former boss Barack Obama placed 7th.
At the top of the list were Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt, with Thomas Jefferson rounding out the top five.
It’s a flattering report for Biden, whose approval rating is currently under 40 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight, which calcuates a weighted average of all major polls. Rottinghaus and Vaughn explained the results of their survey in the Los Angeles Times:
Proponents of the Biden presidency have strong arguments in their arsenal, but his high placement within the top 15 suggests a powerful anti-Trump factor at work. So far, Biden’s record does not include the military victories or institutional expansion that have typically driven higher rankings, and a family scandal such as the one involving his son Hunter normally diminishes a president’s ranking.
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.
Trump’s position in last place — his second appearance in that spot — was attributed to his “radical departure from political, institutional and legal norms” in the eyes of the scholars who participated in the survey.
