No, Donald Trump Wasn’t our Worst President

Whether you despise him or revere him, there is no question that the presidency of Donald J. Trump will be long remembered and debated. You and I have our views, of course, but how will history judge the nation’s 45th leader?

We don’t have to wait for an answer to that question — or at least a preliminary answer. In the months following a president’s departure from office, C-SPAN invites a large number of professional historians — university professors, foundation researchers and authors — to rank all of our former chief executives. Those asked to participate in the survey come from large, public universities (Texas A & M, UCLA, the Naval Academy), private research universities (Johns Hopkins, Princeton) and religious schools (Colorado Christian, Brigham Young, Bob Jones) as well as secular ones. Some participants are presumed to be conservative (Heritage Foundation) while other are likely to be more progressive (Howard University). In all, 142 historians participated in this year’s survey.

They scored each president on ten different criteria, (e.g., managing the economy, exercising leadership in a crisis, being able to persuade the public, projecting moral authority, successfully managing international relations, ability to work with Congress, etc.). Out of a possible 1,000 points, this year’s scores ranged from a low of 227 for James…