President Trump has debuted at the bottom of a “presidential greatness” ranking survey, according to a report published Monday.
Former President Abraham Lincoln topped the list, just as he did last time Brandon Rottinghaus, of University of Houston, and Justin Vaughn, of Boise State University, conducted the research in 2014, while Trump took last place.
Although the pollsters found consistencies between the two studies, their latest survey captured “significant changes” in the positions of former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Obama shot up 10 spots from 2014 to become the country’s eighth greatest president, whereas Clinton dropped five ranks to be 14th. Bush also experienced a bump, jumping up to 30th from 35th.
The survey, which polled 170 current and recent members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents & Executive Politics Section, skewed left, with 57.2 percent respondents identifying with Democrats.
Members who considered themselves to be Republican (12.7 percent) or independent (27.1 percent) and “other” (3 percent) were harsher critics of Obama, putting him in the 16th and 12th positions respectively.
Conservative-leaning respondents gave Trump only a four-ranking boost, elevating him from 44th to 40th.
Trump performed badly in a University of Virginia presidential ranking survey earlier in February, when he was placed only above Andrew Jackson and Richard Nixon.
This latest poll was administered by Qualtrics between Dec. 22, 2017, and Jan. 16., 2018.
