Worst President?

[Lincoln Republican]

Who is the worst President, Andrew Johnson or Donald Trump?

Please vote and discuss.

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

Andrew Johnson, and it isn't even close. Trump is racist, yes, but he has nothing on Johnson, who paved the way for Jim Crow for the next century.

[PSOL]

Andrew Johnson actually successfully organized a (bloodless) overturn of the country’s government by attempting to reinstate the old political diagrams before the civil war for a longer while. The result was constant massacres of African Americans and an immensely corrupt government.

[TDAS04]

Why isn't James Buchanan an option?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Trump

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Likely Andrew Johnson, but the poll should include James Buchanan as well, and also things are so crazy these days that I really want to wait January 20 for my judgment.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

The would have been a toss-up for me before the election.  But now, it's definitively Trump in my mind. 

As awful as Andrew Johnson (and Buchanan) were, I think this question needs to be answered at least somewhat in the context of the moral consensus of the time.  Otherwise you can argue that Warren Harding was a better President than George Washington because Washington owned slaves and Harding didn't.

Trump is clearly the most incompetent president, as well as the biggest moral outlier.  I.e. there are plenty of prominent politicians of their time who would have been as bad as Buchanan or Johnson had they been elected president.  There's basically no plausible candidate who would have been anywhere near as bad as Trump on many, many dimensions.

[SWE]

The long term damage Johnson did is hard to overstate. I could see the case for Trump ultimately being worse but I'd probably need a few years of hindsight to be comfortable saying that myself

[S019]

Write-In: James Buchanan, Trump is now in the discussion with Pierce, Buchanan, Johnson, Harding, Jackson, Fillmore, etc.

[RINO Tom]

Likely Andrew Johnson, but the poll should include James Buchanan as well, and also things are so crazy these days that I really want to wait January 20 for my judgment.

Pretty much this ... the events at the Capitol were so damn jarring, that I need a while to process them and try to think clearly.  I might just arrive at the (obvious now??) opinion that Trump IS, in fact, the worst President ever ... but I'd like to do so with less emotion involved.

[Alben Barkley]

The would have been a toss-up for me before the election.  But now, it's definitively Trump in my mind. 

As awful as Andrew Johnson (and Buchanan) were, I think this question needs to be answered at least somewhat in the context of the moral consensus of the time.  Otherwise you can argue that Warren Harding was a better President than George Washington because Washington owned slaves and Harding didn't.

Trump is clearly the most incompetent president, as well as the biggest moral outlier.  I.e. there are plenty of prominent politicians of their time who would have been as bad as Buchanan or Johnson had they been elected president.  There's basically no plausible candidate who would have been anywhere near as bad as Trump on many, many dimensions.

Agree on all points.

[TheReckoning]

The would have been a toss-up for me before the election.  But now, it's definitively Trump in my mind. 

As awful as Andrew Johnson (and Buchanan) were, I think this question needs to be answered at least somewhat in the context of the moral consensus of the time.  Otherwise you can argue that Warren Harding was a better President than George Washington because Washington owned slaves and Harding didn't.

Trump is clearly the most incompetent president, as well as the biggest moral outlier.  I.e. there are plenty of prominent politicians of their time who would have been as bad as Buchanan or Johnson had they been elected president.  There's basically no plausible candidate who would have been anywhere near as bad as Trump on many, many dimensions.

I’m still thinking Buchanan, because I feel like his actions had worse long-term consequences, but after all the has happened, I’ll have to wait and see if that holds.

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

I would still rank Buchanan as being worse than Johnson. Buchanan fiddled while the country tipped itself apart. Johnson botched the recovery.

Truly, I want to just say that Trump is the worst, but it’s hard to say without 50 years of hindsight.

[Senator Incitatus]

Neither is in my bottom 5.