Five Presidents Worse than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

The most striking claim in this roundup of “worst” U.S. presidents is that presidential failure often shows up less as a single scandal and more as a pattern: enabling slavery and civil conflict, refusing to act during national crises, or launching costly wars and policies that reshape the country for decades. Using an aggregate of scholarly rankings dating back to the 1948 Schlesinger poll, the list argues that several presidents earned their reputations through inaction at critical moments or decisions that intensified long-running national problems.

Franklin Pierce (1853–1857) is portrayed as an expansionist whose pro-slavery politics helped inflame the road to the Civil War. The transcript highlights his support for the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by letting Kansas and Nebraska decide whether to allow slavery—an approach described as stoking the fires leading up to war. Pierce’s political downfall is framed as swift and total: he was denied a second term as public and even former supporters’ support collapsed. After leaving office, he is depicted as spending the rest of his life drinking heavily and attacking Abraham Lincoln.

James Buchanan follows, with the central accusation that he “didn’t really do anything” as the Civil War approached. The transcript emphasizes Buchanan’s stance that slavery was of “little practical importance” and that states should decide for themselves. As the country slid toward depression, Buchanan is said to have ignored the accelerating crisis—by the time the war was imminent, seven states had left the Union within three months of his election. Buchanan’s legacy is summarized as a grim prelude to Lincoln rather than a decisive attempt to prevent catastrophe.

Andrew Johnson (1865–1869) is described as the worst kind of post-war leader: a president unwilling to compromise and committed to denying civil rights to Black Americans. The transcript points to his opposition to the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the 14th Amendment, arguing these choices prolonged post-war strife and contributed to the failure of Reconstruction to resolve the race problem. It also leans on a counterfactual commonly discussed by historians—suggesting the country would have been better off if Lincoln had not been assassinated.

Warren G. Harding (1921–1923) is framed less as ideologically driven and more as mediocre and corrupt. The transcript cites the “Ohio gang,” a group tied to government fraud charges, and claims Harding engaged in affairs, including one involving a German sympathizer who allegedly tried to blackmail him and was paid off. His policy record is summarized as pro-rich and anti-labor, including tax cuts for the wealthy and opposition to organized labor, with the added claim that his actions laid groundwork for the Great Depression. Harding’s death in 1923 ends his term early.

The final and most contemporary figure is George W. Bush, presented as a likely “worst post-depression” president. The transcript argues Bush failed to prevent the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor despite advance intelligence, then launched two of the longest wars in U.S. history—one under “false pretenses.” It credits Bush’s policies with helping enable the rise of ISIS, notes the shift from an inherited budget surplus to a massive deficit, and links deregulation and the Patriot Act to the conditions behind the 2008 financial crisis and modern domestic surveillance. While acknowledging some problems grew for years, the Iraq War is treated as the decisive indictment, with the “Bush doctrine” described as the biggest foreign-policy shift since the Monroe Doctrine.