Five lowest-rated US presidents after Trump claims Biden was ‘worst ever by far’
Joe Biden has thrown the race into turmoil with his announcement that he will not stand for re-election - reversing a position he has maintained for months.
Donald Trump branded Joe Biden the ‘worst US President of all time’ just hours before the former Delaware senator confirmed he will not be running again - but in actual fact the 81-year-old did not even make the bottom ten in one recent survey.
Mr Biden bowed out yesterday after weeks of pressure, endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris as the candidate best placed to take on Mr Trump.
Mr Trump had earlier posted a scathing assessement of his time in office via his Truth Social platform, declaring: “Crooked Joe Biden is the Worst President, by far, in the History of our Nation.
He has done everything possible to destroy our Country, from our Southern Border, to Energy Dominance, National Security, International Standing, and so much more.”
Insisting Mr Biden “was not fit to serve from the very beginning”, he added: “Whoever the Left puts up now will just be more of the same.”
Nevertheless, US News’ Worst Presidents rankings, published in February and based on website in February and based on Siena College's 2022 Presidential Expert Poll, C-SPAN's 2021 Presidential Historians Survey and the Presidential Greatness Survey conducted by professors at the University of Houston and Coastal Carolina University in 2024, reached a different conclusion.
1) The man who failed to challenge the spread of slavery
James Buchanan, the 15th President of the USA, is sometimes regarded as having sowed the seeds of the American Civil War, 1861-65.
The Democrat personally rejected slavery as a indefensible evil but did little to stop it, even before he was elected President in 1856.
In his inaugural address, the 15th president tacitly encouraged the Supreme Court's forthcoming Dred Scott decision, which ruled that Congress had no power to keep slavery out of the territories.
He opted not to seek a second term in 1860 and - after Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected - several states seceded, triggering the damaging conflict between north and south.
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2) The man who turned a blind eye to those trying to undo progress of the Civil War
Andrew Johnson, from South Carolina, served as Nixon’s Vice-President and succeeded him upon his assassination in 1865.
The post-war period was known as the reconstruction era, and Mr Johnson clashed frequently with those championing the rights of freed slaves.
As well as vetoing the renewal of the Freedman's Bureau and the first civil rights bill, Mr Johnson encouraged opposition to the 14th Amendment, which requires that “no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”.
Johnson failed to win the 1868 Democratic Party nomination and left office the following year.
3) The man we all know
Ironically, given his criticism of Mr Biden, it is Donald Trump himself, President from 2016-20, who is rated by US News as the third-worst of them all - and the only one in the top five who is still alive.
Twice impeached and convicted of a felony, Mr Trump is still facing criminal charges surrounding his attempts to overturn the 2020 election in which he lost to Mr Biden.
The survey was published prior to the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in which Mr Trump was hit in the ear.
Regardless of his reputation, he remains favourite to win a second, non-consecutive term in the White House in November.
4) The man who led 'one of the most disastrous administrations in American history'
One-term President Mr Pierce, who served from 1853-57, was a Democrat who was profoundly opposed to the abolition of slavery, believing it to be a threat to the nation’s unity.
As such, he alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas-Nebraska act, creating the two territories which eventually became US states, and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act.
Like Mr Buchanan, he is often blamed for creating the circumstances which resulted in the civil war.
Historian Eric Foner said: "His administration turned out to be one of the most disastrous in American history.”
5) The one who was there less than a month
William Harrison, who won the 1840 US Presidential election, delivered the longest inaugural address in US history, at more than two hours - but less than a month later he was dead.
The rigours of the campaign sapped his strength, and on March 24, 1841, he was caught in a rainstorm without a coat or hat and did not change his clothes on return to the White House.
He became ill and despite bloodletting, was diagnosed with pneumonia in the right lung. His illness worsened and he died in the early hours of April 4.
His death created a constitutional crisis, since the succession had not yet been clearly defined by the US constitution. Eventually he was replaced by Martin van Buren.
