Today is President’s Day, and you know what that means: time to reflect on your favorite American commander-in-chiefs. Are you a James K. Polk stan? Maybe you’re all about Franklin Pierce or Rutherford B. Hayes. Perhaps you think the nation’s finest leader was William Henry Harrsion, who only served 30 days, 12 hours, and 30 minutes. But what do the experts say? On Sunday Fox News published a report that ranked the country’s presidents, and they did their damndest to obscure the fact that the network’s favorite one ranked dead last.
Per HuffPost, the Fox News social media team tried to spin the report, entitled the “Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey” and featuring the input of scholars and “social science experts in presidential politics.” Alas, they could only manage to make it seem less grim for them than it was.
New presidential rankings place Obama in top 10, Reagan and Trump below Biden https://t.co/uIWC8u7ELI
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 18, 2024
“New presidential rankings place Obama in top 10, Reagan and Trump below Biden,” read the post on Twitter/X. Sounds bad! But it gets even worse.
For one thing, Joe Biden ranked 14th, sandwiched between John Addams and Woodrow Wilson. Where was Ronald Reagan? Two below Biden, at 16. And Trump? All the way down at 45, which is to say at the very bottom, down there with James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Peirce, and William Henry Harrison.
That Fox News tried to soften the blow, to say nothing of reporting on the poll at all, struck many as amusing.
Odd that the tweet and headline don’t highlight the fact that Trump came in dead last, and that even Republican participants in the survey viewed him as being among the five worst presidents. https://t.co/NJ7IlI3Bgq
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) February 18, 2024
Trump placed far worse than just “below Biden” there. https://t.co/2695dNGtdG
— Scott Keith (@rspwfaq) February 18, 2024
Your headline should read:
“New presidential rankings place Trump dead last even below Buchanan.” https://t.co/L9olihlCg8
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) February 19, 2024
“Trump was ranked in last place in the survey, being ranked worse than James Buchanan at 44, Andrew Johnson at 43, Franklin Peirce at 42, and William Henry Harrison at 41”
Yikes. https://t.co/le9JBSmqs0
— Angry Staffer
(@Angry_Staffer) February 18, 2024
Some impressive misdirection on Fox’s part. Trump came in dead last. Worst president ever, according to historians https://t.co/MunhBE5C2k
— David Lazarus (@Davidlaz) February 19, 2024
Can’t believe I’m QT’ing FoxNews but…..
https://t.co/PKToNjkKYI
— Harry C (@hcouch22) February 18, 2024
Fox News dropping truth bombs on the cult lol
“A new ranking of presidents by a group of experts determined that Abraham Lincoln is America’s greatest president, while Donald Trump is ranked in last place.” https://t.co/LKi0GtfKat
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) February 18, 2024
This better be in every Democratic talking point from now until kingdom come! https://t.co/PX7t3NrHtR
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) February 18, 2024
tfw you suck more than the guy who was president for 30 days https://t.co/ynq1lIYulg
— @chriscesq, America’s mayor (@chriscesq) February 18, 2024
Fox News commemorates Presidents’ Day by writing up a new presidential rankings showing Trump as the worst president of all time. Can’t make it up. https://t.co/JkwaXc8bsW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 19, 2024
Anyway, congrats to the Republican Party, who are almost certainly going to make the worst president in history their nominee, for a third time. The craziest part? There’s a good chance he could be re-elected.
(Via HuffPost)