‘Insane BS!’ Conservatives and Liberals Alike Baffled by Trump’s Ranking of Presidents
(Screengrab via Truth Social) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump left liberal critics outraged by declaring himself the greatest president in American history on Thursday and left conservatives trying to decipher his baffling ranking system that relegated former President Ronald Reagan to nowhere at all.
Trump shared the presidential tier list on Truth Social, placing himself alone in a category marked “The Greatest,” above Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson, who were merely deemed “Great.”
The display quickly drew ridicule from liberal commentators over Trump’s decision to put himself at the summit of American presidential history, while conservative voices questioned some of the list’s more peculiar choices and omissions.
Although conservatives in particular began making all kinds of analysis of the rankings, the graphic appears to be a modified version of a LIFE magazine ranking published in 1948 following a survey of 55 American history experts. Trump’s version largely retains those decades-old assessments while inserting more recent presidents, with some conspicuous alterations.
Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Jimmy Carter appear in the “Failures” category alongside Ulysses S. Grant, and Warren G. Harding. Bill Clinton, meanwhile, pulled some grace and was added to the “Average” tier.
But the list completely omits every president between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Clinton, including Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Reagan, and both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Reacting, Trump’s opponents fixated on the brazen ego of the post:
Prominent conservatives, meanwhile, were puzzled by the graphic and its glaring omissions:
On Friday morning, Trump attempted to set the record straight on where he stands with Reagan, sharing a new graphic that places the 40th president with himself, Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson as the “five who built America.”
(Truth Social screenshot)
Under them is the “five who broke it”: James Buchanan, Wilson (downgraded from “great” a day earlier), Carter, Obama, and Biden.
One thing’s for sure: Trump left no ambiguity about where he believes he belongs.
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