Is it even possible to measure how bad a president has been? We can. In the USA, presidential rankings are viral. Presidents are ranked according to how well or badly they governed and what qualities they had.
For this Top 11 list of the worst presidents, the latest study by the Siena College Research Institute was taken as a starting point. Over 200 scholars and researchers examined all the presidents of the United States for this study.
To rank them, they assessed 6 personal attributes, such as integrity and intelligence and 5 skills, such as the ability to compromise, oratory etc. Additionally, they also analyzed the strength and weaknesses of the U.S. presidents in 8 policy areas, such as economic policy and foreign policy. Using this data, they finally produced a scientifically based ranking of presidents for the top 11 worst presidents in the US.
Benjamin Harrison
23rd President of the United States
Party: Republicans
Term of office: March 4, 1889 – March 4, 1893
First lady: His wife, Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison
Children: 1 daughter and a son from his first marriage to Carolina and 1 daughter from his second marriage to his wife’s niece
Nickname: Little Ben (due to his height of 1.68 meters)
What was special about him?
He was, until today, the last president with a full beard. His grandfather William Henry Harrison was also president. He too “made it” to the top 11 worst presidents of the United States.
What went so bad during his term?
Through high tariffs and taxes, the government reached a record surplus; many Americans disliked that; therefore, they voted Harrison out.
During his term, there were no real disasters; he slid into the top 11 worst presidents because he scored poorly on many individual scores in the Siena study.
William Henry Harrison
9th President of the United States
Party: Whig
Term of office: March 4, 1841, to April 4, 1841
First lady: His granddaughter Jane Irwin Harrison. Wife Anna Harrison planned to join him later due to illness, but that proved unnecessary.
Children: six sons and four daughters with his wife.
What was special about him?
He delivered the longest inaugural address of any president. He did so in the open air as freezing rain began to fall. He did this also to prove that he was still fit despite his age of 68 (the oldest president at the inauguration after Reagan and Trump).
What went so bad during his term?
A few days after his inauguration, he contracted pneumonia, which he never recovered from. He died of it on April 4, 1841, despite all the doctors’ efforts. He had the shortest term of any president at 30 days, in 12 hours and 30 minutes.
In his short term, he naturally could not set any political accents. That is also why he was ranked 10th worst U.S. president of all time in the Siena study.
Herbert Hoover
31st President of the United States
Party: Republican
Term of office: March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933
First Lady: His wife, Lou Henry
Children: 2 sons
Best quote: If a man has not made a million dollars by the time he is forty, then he is not worth much.
What went so bad during his term?
The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent severe economic crisis (Great Depression) took place during his term of office. A lot of Americans fell into misery or even suffered from hunger. He did not find any solutions, nor did he believe that politics should not interfere in the economy.
He was unable even to develop a nutrition program to at least cushion the worst consequences of the crisis. Moreover, he was considered a cool technocrat who could not find the right words for the farmers and workers in this dire situation.
The Siena Study experts also rated Herbert Hoover poorly in many fields, putting him in 8th place among the worst US presidents.
John Tyler
10th President of the United States
Party: None
Term of office: April 4, 1841, to March 4, 1845
First Ladies: Letitia Christian Tyler and Julia Gardiner (his first wife, Letitia, died while in office)
Children: 15 children from both marriages (a record!)
What was special about him?
Tyler was the first U.S. president not to be elected, taking office from his predecessor, William Henry Harrison, due to the latter’s untimely death.
Biggest scandal
There were always rumors that he had more children with black female slaves and then sold the children. Today, many African American families in the U.S. claim descent from the 10th U.S. president.
What went so bad during his term?
He was excluded from his own party shortly after taking office; he was not taken seriously in general, and many doubted whether his presidency was legitimate at all (since he was an “afterthought” and not elected). For those reasons, he was hardly able to achieve anything politically.
Millard Fillmore
13th President of the United States
Party: Whigs
Term of office: July 9, 1850, to March 1853
First Lady: His wife, Abigail Powers
Children: 1 daughter and a son
What was special about him?
As John Tyler, Fillmore was not elected but took office in his capacity as Vice President. The real president, Zachary Taylor, passed away due to food poisoning. Millard Fillmore was the last Whig president, with all subsequent presidents being Republican or Democrat.
What went so bad during his term?
He put into effect the Fugitive Slave Act, “the bloodhound law.” Under it, Northern states that rejected slavery were required to return runaway states from the South to their owners. Partly because of this unpopular law, he was not nominated by his own party, The Whigs, to run for a second term. Other than that, his political stature remained insignificant, leaving him as one of the most unknown presidents in the United States.
Siena’s study ranks Fillmore as the 7th worst US president. He is particularly chalked up negatively for poor party leadership, IQ, and leadership qualities.
George Walker Bush
43rd President of the United States
Party: Republican
Term of office: January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009
First Lady: His wife, Laura Bush
Children: 2 daughters (twins)
What was special about him?
His father, George Bush Sr., was the 41st president. Bush read the Bible every day during his presidency.
Biggest scandal
Until the age of 40, he suffered from alcohol problems temporarily he lost his driver’s license because of it
What went so bad during his term?
The September 11, 2001, terror attacks caused many deaths and injuries, extensive damage and triggered shock among the nation.
In the War on Terror that followed, the United States attacked Iraq (demonstrably not involved in the attacks) and Afghanistan. These unpopular and costly missions killed or crippled thousands of U.S. soldiers.
Hurricane Kathrina: The ailing infrastructure could not withstand the storm. Many people lost their lives or became homeless, resulting in over 100 billion dollars damage.
2008 financial crisis (Great Recession): Misguided economic policies led to the banking crisis in the USA and subsequently to the global economic crisis. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, assets, and many their homes because they could no longer pay their mortgages.
George Walker Bush was the first post-World War 2 president to “make it” into the top 11 worst presidents. Siena experts rated his economic and foreign policies particularly poorly. Considering their IQs, President Bush came in the second last place of all US presidents.
Franklin Pierce
14th President of the United States
Party: Democrats
Term of office: March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1857
First Lady: His wife, Jane Means Appleton Pierce
Children: 3 sons, all died at a young age, last in a train accident just weeks into the presidency. It was the only victim of this accident.
Weaknesses: suffered from depression and alcoholism during his presidency, caused by the untimely death of his children
What went so bad during his term?
He passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which questioned the ban on slavery for those states. The differences between North and South intensified because of this, and the first bloody riots occurred (Bleeding Kansas)
He was so unpopular with his own party that they refused to allow him to run for a second term. In retrospect, it becomes apparent that his policies paved the way for the Civil War. Hence he is considered one of the worst presidents of the United States. The Siena Study experts placed him 5th in this inglorious ranking.
Warren Gamaliel Harding
29th President of the United States
Party: Republican
Term of office: from March 4, 1921, to August 2, 1923
First Lady: Florence Mabel Klin
Children: 1 illegitimate daughter
What was special about him?
With a shoe size of 55, he had the largest feet of all presidents. He died of a stroke during his term of office.
Biggest scandals:
An affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips, wife of a friend, that lasted for years
An affair with Nan Britt, a friend’s daughter. From this connection also comes his daughter.
The First Lady celebrated lavish parties with lots of alcohol, despite Prohibition.
What went so bad during his term?
Harding helped many friends and acquaintances, some of them corrupt, into political office. This gave rise to several corruption scandals during his short tenure, including the “Ohio Gang,” the “Daugherty Burns Scandal,” and the “Teapot Dome.”
Though he did not produce any major disasters except for the scandals during his tenure, Siena Study ranked him as the fourth-worst US president of all time. He comes in dead last for many attributes, such as background, Executive appointments, and Executive ability. The study also rates him as the president with the lowest IQ.
James Buchanan
15th President of the United States
Party: Democrats
First Lady: Buchanan was unmarried, so his niece took the post
Nickname: Miss Nancy (because of his feminine charisma)
What was special about him?
So far, he is the only unmarried president in the history of the United States.
Biggest scandal: Already during his term in office, there were rumors that he was living in a homosexual relationship with the Southerner William R. King (at that time, still punishable by law). Until today, it has not been clarified whether it is true. However, letters between the two indicate at least an intimate friendship.
What went so bad during his term?
There was a severe banking and economic crisis, leading to high levels of unemployment and poverty. Worse, however, he stood idly by as the southern states of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas seceded from the United States. This led to the American Civil War under his successor Abe Lincoln. For those reasons, in almost all American ratings, it comes in last or next-to-last place among the worst U.S. presidents of all time.
Donald Trump
45th President of the United States
Party: Republicans
Term of office: January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021
First Lady: His wife, Melanie Trump
Children: Three sons and two daughters
What went so bad during his term?
Donald Trump is expected to continue for a long time at the bottom of this ranking for having faced two impeachment proceedings during a single term. This is no surprise to see him among the 3 worst US presidents of all time. The President’s failure to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and his failed coup attempt against American democracy also ensured his place as one of the worst presidents in the United States.
More than 400,000 Americans have died under his presidency, impacted by COVID-19, which was spread early in the pandemic by policies denying the severity of the situation, followed by a poorly organized response.
Donald Trump also launched his enraged supporters against the dome of American democracy on January 6 to stop the U.S. legislature from certifying the vote confirming Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Andrew Johnson – the worst US president of all time
17th President of the United States
Party: Democrats
Term of office: April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869
First Lady: His wife, Eliza McCardle, as she was very shy, mostly his daughter Martha took over the duties of the First Lady.
Children: two daughters and three sons
What was special about him?
Johnson was the first president against whom impeachment proceedings were conducted.
He was not elected president but took over as vice president from his predecessor Abraham Lincoln, who was killed in an assassination attempt.
What went so bad during his term?
Johnson was an incorrigible racist. He was convinced that whites were superior to blacks and that a peaceful coexistence on equal terms between whites and blacks was not possible. For that reason, he fought resolutely against all laws that were supposed to improve the position of blacks and former slaves.
This ultimately led to an impeachment trial, which he survived very narrowly by only one vote. However, for a second term, the Democrats, representing his own party, failed to put him up for re-election.
Johnson is not only listed as the worst U.S. president in the Siena study, but almost all recent rankings have him as the worst or second-worst president. His record is steadily deteriorating: He still held a good middle place in the old rankings from 1950-70. His racism, shattered relations with Congress and poor relations with his own party, are particularly criticized.
