Survey on performance in office
“Great US presidents”: Trump clearly behind Biden
February 19, 2024, 5:28 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Of course, the expert assessment does not change the current survey situation in the USA. It is always a pointer. More than 150 US experts rank the US presidents according to their performance in office. The current favorite for the coming elections, Trump, suffers a disaster.
US President Joe Biden has little to smile about in current voter polls. His likely challenger in the presidential election in November, Donald Trump, is currently in the lead and is undisputedly the most important politician, especially among the Republicans. However, in a survey of scientists about the performance of US presidents, the current one clearly leaves the former US president behind.
The “Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey“, however, not only analyzes the performance of Trump and Biden, but also that of all 45 US presidents. The current US president comes in 14th place, while Trump brings up the rear. Around 150 political scientists participated in the survey , sociologists and historians cast their vote. They are all currently researching US politics. The analysis therefore provides an expert view of the political performance in the White House.
For the evaluation, the respondents had to sort the terms of office according to “greatness”, i.e. give an assessment of them. So it was about an overall assessment of the impact of all presidents. The values ranged from 0 to 100. Zero means total political failure. Trump achieved the worst value with 10.92 points, Abraham Lincoln the best with 93.87 points. Biden is in the upper midfield with 62.66 points, while his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama is in the top ten with 73.8 points.
“Greatness”, which means “size” or “greatness” in German, can have many facets in the analysis. It’s about factors such as whether a president is in the White House at the right time or at the wrong time, the survey says. Then how we deal with major crises plays a role. For example, the three greatest presidents, Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt, came into office at times of great crises. Other criteria scientists used for their analysis was how much the presidents changed the course of American history. Lincoln achieved this by overcoming the secession between northern and southern states and Franklin Delano Roosevelt achieved this by founding the welfare state and defeating fascism.
One-month President Harrison clearly ahead of Trump
But there are also criteria that are a little more difficult to weight. “Biden’s greatest achievement may be that he was able to save the presidency from Trump,” write Justin Vaughn from Boise State University and Brandon Rottinghaus from the University of Houston, the initiators of the survey. He led the office in a more “traditional” way again.
What’s interesting, especially with regard to Trump, is the fact that even William Henry Harrison is well ahead of him in 31st place. The ninth President of the USA was elected in 1840 and died just a month after his inauguration in early April 1841. The myth persists that he contracted pneumonia during his very long inaugural speech outdoors during a snowstorm which he ultimately succumbed to. Harrison was the first US president to die in office.
The survey was conducted among scientists from both political camps, i.e. Democrats and Republicans. However, Trump’s disastrous performance in this survey does not affect his popularity in the Republican camp. In all likelihood, the 77-year-old will run as the Republican presidential candidate against the 81-year-old Biden in November. This would mean a repeat of the US presidential election four years ago.