Earlier this week, Fox News released a poll which showed that a shocking 42% of Americans rank Donald Trump as one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States.
Regardless of whether you are a Trump supporter or critic, when we consider some of his predecessors, anyone rooted in reality can see that President Trump is far from the worst among them.
Here is a countdown of some of the real worst presidents in the history of the United States.
5) Woodrow Wilson (1913 – 1921)
After first pushing for neutrality in World War I — and celebrating his ability to keep the United States out of the war — President Wilson then manipulated his own policies and dragged the country into the war. This led to an economic recession, the suppression of civil liberties under his attorney general, and the nationalization of multiple private industries. Race riots also “erupted in numerous cities that claimed nearly 150 lives in two years.” His administration also downplayed the Spanish Flu pandemic.
4) Andrew Jackson (1829 – 1837)
President Jackson supported the removal of Native Americans before he even became president, and achieving such a goal was among his highest priorities in office. Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, despite the fact that it did not give the president power to force tribes to move without a mutual treaty, Jackson repeatedly ignored both the legislative and the judicial branches. This resulted in a series of voluntary and involuntary relocations known as the Trail of Tears, with tens of thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves moving west. Thousands of people died in the process.
3) Franklin Pierce (1853 – 1857)
President Pierce helped set the stage for the Civil War, attempting to block abolitionists and assuage advocates for slavery. He also backed the Kansas-Nebraska Act — which permitted residents in those areas to choose whether or not they would allow slavery — and the Fugitive Slave Act — part of the Compromise of 1850 which required that slaves be returned to their owners even if they were now in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.
2) Andrew Johnson (1865 – 1869)
After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the end of the Civil War, President Johnson clashed with Congress over Reconstruction, and “new southern state legislatures passed restrictive ‘black codes’ to control the labor and behavior of former enslaved people and other African Americans.” Johnson also vetoed what became the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which would grant citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” including freed slaves.
1) James Buchanan (1857 – 1861)
As tensions rose between the North and the South over slavery, Buchanan evaded the issue and refused to address or challenge the spread of slavery. He made little to no effort to unite the country, or to prevent southern states from seceding. The country eventually spiraled into civil war as he left office, with the Union breaking apart under his watch, and the Panic of 1857 having dragged the United States into a deep recession. It is also alleged that Buchanan influenced the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court case, with the Court reaching the appalling decision that African descendants were not US citizens, and therefore had no claim to freedom or the right to sue for freedom.
Ian Haworth is host of The Ian Haworth Show and The Truth in 60 Seconds. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.