Republicans: Where do you honestly think Trump will be ranked by future historians?

[Badger]

Not a republican, but I will opine any way to start the ball rolling. He'll rank lower than Andrew Johnson. It's neck-and neck whether he or Buchanan were ranked lower. Buchanan's dithering and in action in the face of the coming civil war was unmitigated awful. However, trumps dithering and in action in the face of coronavirus, even to the extent of suppressing it's looming threat and then fighting the steps needing to contain it all for personal political gain, are arguably just as bad.

The Civil War obviously killed significantly more Americans then Coronavirus (so far), and we would have had the coronavirus hit us regardless just like it did the rest of the world. However, it's likewise tough to see almost any president, even a James Polk or an Abraham Lincoln, being able to stop the Civil War through decisive leadership in 1858 through 1860. Circumstances  we're far far different from the  secession crisis of the 1820s where Jackson gave John C Calhoun and his cohorts a well needed smacking down, and not readily replicatable in 1860. The resulting War would have arguably been just as bad as it actually turned out to be, whereas the difference between the way a president Hillary Clinton, or even a president Cruz or Jeb Bush would have handled the coronavirus versus the way Trump has dumpster fired the whole thing resulted in an additional death toll at least in the high five digits, possibly six figures by the time we get through this.

 Plus, it's arguable Buchanan at very least blundered and dithered because he was a weak person and leader, rather than out of personal political advantage. Trump has kept his eye firmly on getting re-elected, even by taking the most selfish means possible, whereas Buchanan I believe realized quite early into the secession crisis that he was going to be a lame duck. Inaction is at least morally Superior to outright malicious self-interest, and the same holds true for a president.

And then there's the corruption and treason. Trump is arguably worse than Buchanan because not only did he completely and utterly fail in the face of one of the most serious and deadly crisis in our nation's history, but he combines and even exceeds all the presidential abuse of authority plus rampant self-dealing and cronyism of the Andrew Johnson, Nixon, and Harding Administrations, also regularly counted by historians as among our worst.

Seriously, now that I have said this out loud, having combined the worst aspects of the bottom three or four presidencies, how does Trump not come out as literally the worst president in history? Because the Civil War killed more people than coronavirus thus far?

[Badger]

President Trump is definitely an "end-member of the spectrum". Democrats "worst nightmare" etc...

But interestingly, Donald will go down as one of the most powerful Presidents in modern US history.

His tactics with ignoring the media are a departure from the norm. Whereas Obama and Bush would make deals with the media and play the game, Trump will go down in history as the first President to ignore modern media and employ social media, in this case, Twitter, to message his constituents directly.

I initially expected this tactic to be fruitless, but it turned out to be quite a success.

Donald J Trump is also the wealthiest President, a TV personality so one would expect him to be remembered in history as the first "lying, stealing business manager" type to sneak through the political elite of the US and grab the torch.

This will have an impact in history on the nature of candidates to follow i.e. TV stars and wealthy billionaires.

Regardless of the whether the next elected President after Trump is Democrat or Republican, one would also expect the relationship with China to be more on US terms thanks to his aggressive posturing with Asian trading partners.

Historically, the epitaph of President Trump will come down to November 2020. If he is turfed out, then it will be deemed a failed experiment. If he is re-elected, then one could safely say that 8-year term Presidents are treated more kindly on their Wikipedia page.

"Donald J. Trump will go down in history one of the great presidents for his Valiant efforts at triggering the libs. Oh, and something something tough on China."