IS DONALD TRUMP AMERICA'S WORST EVER PRESIDENT?
- Peter Radan
- May 29, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: May 29, 2020
Peter Radan (29 May 2020)
In a recent article published in the Washington Post, American historian, Professor Ted Widmer, began with the following question: "Will President Trump go down as the worst president in history?"[1]
American scholars periodically rank the leadership qualities and performance of American presidents. Prior to the Trump presidency, the generally regarded greatest president was Abraham Lincoln, who led the United States through the Civil War - America's bloodiest military conflict. The generally regarded worst president was Lincoln's immediate predecessor, James Buchanan, who also happens to be the only bachelor and whiskerless man - he never had to shave - to serve as America's Commander-in-Chief.[2]
The story of Lincoln who saved the Union and freed America's slaves is well-known. Less so is the story of the hapless Buchanan. His ranking as the worst American president, sketched out in more detail by Widmer in his Washington Post article, is mainly due to his inability to take any decisive action towards ameliorating sectional tensions within the Union over the divisive issue of slavery in the late 1850s. This ineptitude drew disparaging comments from two of his predecessors. As Widmer reports, President John Quincy Adams, referred to Buchanan as "the sneaking scrivener" and President James K Polk described him as "an old maid".
The final months of Buchanan's presidency culminated in the secession of seven southern slave states and the formation of the Confederate States of America, to which a further four states joined after seceding from the Union in the months following Lincoln's inauguration in March 1861. It was during the dying days of his presidency, described by Henry Adams as the Great Secession Winter,[3] that Buchanan declared that, although he believed that secession was constitutionally illegal, as president, he had no authority to do anything to prevent it.[4] This policy led Senator William H Seward, soon to be Lincoln's Secretary of State, to wittily observe that, according to Buchanan, "no state has a right to get out of the Union unless it wants to".[5]
Buchanan's dismal ranking is somewhat ironic given that, in terms of previous service to the nation, he was probably the most qualified person ever to serve as president. A successful and talented lawyer, he saw military service as a private in the War of 1812 before serving for two years as a member of the Pennsylvania legislature. He later served for ten years as a member from Pennsylvania to the US House of Representatives. During his last two years as a Congressman he chaired the House Judiciary Committee. He then served nearly two years as the US Minister to Russia which was followed by just over 10 years of service as a US Senator from Pennsylvania. He then served for 4 years as Secretary of State, during which time President Polk offered him a seat on the US Supreme Court,[6] an offer he declined to accept, given his life-long ambition to be elected president. After a short period away from politics he then served two and half years as the US Minister to Great Britain during the administration of President Franklin Pierce. Upon his return to the United States he campaigned successfully to win the nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate for the 1856 presidential election. On 4 March 1861 he was inaugurated as America's 15th president.
Widmer's sketch of Buchanan's flawed presidency is directed at giving his readers a basis upon which to meaningfully assess whether Trump has, or will displace Buchanan as America's worst president. What Widmer does not mention is that surveys conducted within the first two years of his presidency indicate that Trump is firmly on track to achieve that "honour".
These rankings are based upon assessments by American scholars against a variety of criteria that include each president's background, integrity, intelligence, executive ability, leadership ability, handling of the economy, domestic and foreign policy accomplishments, handing of a crisis, and avoidance of crucial mistakes.
In February 2018, a survey of 170 American political scientists, conducted by the American Political Science Association, ranked Trump at the top of the list of the worst ever American presidents, with Buchanan in second place.[7] Twelve months later, a survey of 157 presidential scholars, conducted by the Siena College Research Institute, ranked Trump No 3 on its list, with Buchanan retaining his top billing.[8] To be fair to Trump, these surveys, conducted while he is still in office, can only be taken as indicative of where he will eventually be ranked. A final assessment can only be made once his term in office ends.
On the other hand, it is clear that many ordinary Americans view Trump differently. Indeed, they see him as a great president and, if not there yet, well on his way to becoming the greatest. Between March 2019 and March 2020, when asked whether or not they agreed with the statement that "Donald Trump was anointed by God to become president of the United States", the "agree" response amongst white evangelicals went up from 29.6% to 49.5%.[9]
However, all these surveys preceded the Covid-19 pandemic which, by all accounts, will be the defining event of the Trump presidency, whether it ends on 4 March 2021 or 4 March 2025. For most Americans, Trump's abject lack of leadership in response to the pandemic, which has significantly contributed to the current death toll of just over 100,000, will cement his spot as the worst ever American president. But, not for all. It is hard to see the above-mentioned segment of America's white evangelicals changing their minds about Trump. And the same goes for that segment of the American community exemplified by the protesters, some dressed in full armour and carrying assault rifles, who descended on Michigan's state capitol on 14 May 2020 in a protest, billed as "Judgment Day", against that state's stay-at-home orders.[10]
Whatever may be the case as to whether American scholars and people view Trump as America's worst ever president, there is no doubt, as is compellingly documented in Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims, and Flat-out Lies,[11] that he is its most ignorant and mendacious. In 384 pages, this book - effectively the first volume of Trump's Collected Works as president - refers to over 16,000 false and/or misleading statements that Trump has made since his inauguration and up to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This aspect of Trump and his presidency is hard to describe in a single word. However, the Scots may well have met that challenge. During his 2016 visit to Scotland, Trump sent out a tweet that asserted that the result of the 2015 Scottish independence referendum was that the Scots "took back their country", when in fact they decided to do the opposite and voted to stay within the United Kingdom. This tweet led to the Scots breathing new life into an exemplar of British slang when many of them responded to Trump's tweet by referring to him as a "cockwomble".
A Google search gives a number of definitions of this evocative instance of British slang. One definition is:
"A person, usually male, prone to making outrageously stupid statements and/or inappropriate behaviour while generally having a very high opinion of their own wisdom and importance".
A more colourful definition is:
"A completely useless person that spouts constant bullshit".
That, in 2016, a cockwomble was elected as America's president came as a surprise, indeed a shock, to most observers. However, what is more shocking is that Trump has been able to conduct himself and the affairs of state in a manner which has largely shredded America's reputation and standing across the globe. Trump's America has moved from initially being laughed at to simply being pitied. And for this, perhaps the greatest blame can be laid at the feet of Trump's principal enablers, namely, the Senators and Representatives in Congress of what has become the Republican in Name Only Party.
In his Washington Post article, Widmer did not answer the question he posed in its opening sentence. He didn't have to. The answer is obvious.
Footnotes
[1] Ted Widmer, 'We've forgotten the worst president in American History: Could Donald Trump really rival James Buchanan?', The Washington Post, 26 May 2020. [2] Jean G Baker, James Buchanan, Times Books, 2004, 19-20. Buchanan's long-term and close personal relationship with William Rufus Kind, a career politician from Alabama, has led to speculation that Buchana was also America's first gay president. However, in his exhaustive examination of this relationship, Balcerski concludes that, although King probably was gay, Buchanan almost certainly was not: Thomas J Balcerski, Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, Oxford University Press, 2019. [3] Henry Adams, 'The Great Secession Winter of 1860-61' (1909) 43 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series 660-687 at 686. [4] James Buchanan, 'Fourth Annual Message', 3 December 1860, in John Bassett Moore (ed), The Works of James Buchanan, Vol XI, 1860-1868, J B Lippincott Co, 1910, 7-43 at 13-14, 19-20. [5] Jean H Baker, 'The South Has Been Wronged: James Buchanan and the Secession Crisis' in John W Quist & Michael J Birkner (eds), James Buchanan and the Coming of the Civil War, University Press of Florida, 2013, 163-182 at 170. [6] Baker, above note 2, 38-39. [7] Brandon Rottinghaus & Justin S Vaughn, 'How Does Trump Stack Up Against the Best - and Worst - Presidents?', New York Times, 19 February 2018. [8] William Cummings, 'Survey of Scholars Places Trump as Third Worst President of All Time', USA Today, 13 February 2019. [9] Thomas B Edsall, 'Trump Is Staking Out His Own Universe of "Alternative Facts"', The New York Times, 13 May 2020. [10] Tom Perkins, 'Protesters Descend on Michigan Capitol but Rain Washes Away Demonstration', The Guardian, 15 May 2020. [11] The Washington Post Fact Checker Staff, Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims, and Flat-out Lies, Scribner, 2020.
Comments