POLL: Is Trump the worst president the United States has ever had?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Yes. He's at rock bottom.

Stupid, Ineffective and incompetent. Terrible personal decisions and actions as President, even before this week. Personally took his party from control of House, Senate and Presidency to having lost all three four years later. Widespread and blatant corruption, including nepotism and personal profit. Near zero positive achievements. Terrible head of state, wretched personal habits, worse use of the bully pulpit ever. Unending assaults on the pillars of state. Hundreds of thousands of Americans dead, in large part specifically because of his leadership. And he topped it all off with two months of whining, abdication of his duties, and an actual god-damned coup attempt.  And his legacy will be just as bad as not worse.

While he is not an absolute zero on every possible metric, the totality of the Trump Presidency is far, far below even his worst, weakest or short-term predecessors. Students of history in the distant future will either point at Trump as the lowest a republic can go and survive, or label him as the destroyer of the United States of America.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

"Don't forget James Buchanan single-handedly started the Civil War!"

And Trump single-handedly stormed the Capitol?

Don't get me wrong. Trump is certainly the leading contender for the worst president position, but it's not a slam dunk certainty, and it is a question that would be better answered a couple decades from now.

He absolutely single-handedly incited tbe storming, by a cult of personality dedicated to him personally.

Any othef presidential contenders from 1856 beats Buchanan, the Civil War still almost certainly occurs. Trump isn't elected in 2016. what happened Wednesday almost certainly doesn't occur.

What happened on Wednesday is a snowball fight compared to the Civil War.

Of course the Trumputsch isn't equivalent to the entire Civil War. But it echoes much of what led up to it, from the  Brooks–Sumner Affair, to a raid by the Border Ruffians, and various seizures of federal facilities by Southern governments.