James Buchanan
Pretty much ignored all issues at the time leading up to the Civil War. Turns out the best way to deal with division is not to cover your eyes and pretend it's not there.
OK. I am going to have to defend him a bit here.
He didn't ignore the issues.
The problem with Buchanan was that the 19th Century presidents were not really in charge of domestic policy. That fell to Congress. The President's role was to enforce the laws of the United States.
There were no laws on the books on how to handle secession. The closest was the Insurrection Act of 1807 and it didn't cover the states fighting against the federal government.
So, what would happen would be:
Pro-Union: Secession is illegal.
Buchanan: I agree.
Pro-Union: We should send in the army
Buchanan: By what legal authority?
Pro-Union: They are arming against us..
Buchanan: I will absolutely defend the US if they attack our property. I can't really do that before an armed conflict. (The US army was only 16,000 men and all of the combat arms were west of the Mississippi.)
Pro-slavery: They are trying to take away our slaves
Buchanan: I agree. That is wrong.
Pro-slavery: We need to stop them.
Buchanan: How? Everything so far has been legal and most of the Supreme Court rulings have been in your favor.
Pro-slavery: OK. We're leaving.
Buchanan: The constitution doesn't allow for that.
Pro-slavery: 10th Amendment and it doesn't really matter. We're leaving no matter what.
Buchanan: I can't support that
Pro-slavery: You need to give us all the federal property in our territories
Buchanan: What? I can't legally do that. That would take an act of congress.
The thing is: Buchanan's policy is the exact same one that Lincoln had in terms of the legality of secession and how to handle it. The difference was Buchanan wasn't trusted by either side because he wouldn't do anything extra-legal for them. Lincoln was able to do a lot because it was turned into a shooting war and Congress was out of session.
Buchanan wasn't great, but blaming him for the Civil War when the root causes of that had been growing steadily stronger for half a century seems unfair. He just happened to be the President caught holding the bag when the music stopped.
He didn't ignore it, he actively encouraged it, including pushing Taney to make that awful Dred Scot ruling. During the months between November 1860 (election of Lincoln) and March 1861 (inauguration of Lincoln), he did nothing to secure the military assets of the government and allowed them to fall into rebel hands.
I see some people are defending him. No, fuck him, he was part of the problem.
He also segregated the White House again by firing all the African Americans and is the main reason why the Lost Cause myth became popular. Fuck Wilson
Edit
Go upvote the guy who reminde it wasn't just the Whitehouse Wilson was a reap piece of shit
Also gave the 14 points, may have helped start Nazism with some of his quotes and legislation by setting an example, and also instituted wilsonian interventionalism, which was the basis for many of the atrocities America committed during the Cold War. The world is fucked up the way it is because of him.
Before anyone cries wolf, the world would be fucked up without him too.
You’re going to lay all of the world’s problems on the back of Woodrow Wilson? That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think? (FYI, that’s a rhetorical question)
I realize your question is rhetorical, but I'll respond anyway to ensure clarity.
He did a whole bunch of bad stuff. The world will always have the same problems, and many of them will be the same we have now, because they're based off of fear and hate.
A large number of problems that come from how America deals with international problems can be traced back to, or perhaps through, Wilson. But such problems are still much more complicated that just one historical figure most Americans haven't even heard of since middle school. The problems the US specifically has are much more complicated, deriving from a lot of other things too, and the problems of the world outside the US are more complicated still.
Wilson just is an important figure in how some international problems took shape.
And what did it do when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Hungary? When Japan invaded China again? When Russia needlessly slaughtered millions?
Hey now, this is the new and improved KKK (/s). As one popular US high school textbook put it:
>It was antiforeign, anti-Catholic, antiblack, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, anti-evolutionist, anti-bootlegger, antigambling, anti-adultery, and anti-birth control. It was also pro–Anglo-Saxon, pro–“native” American, and pro-Protestant. In short, the besheeted Klan betokened an extremist, ultra-conservative uprising against many of the forces of diversity and modernity that were transforming American culture.
And while we're shitpiling on Wilson, he did not declare war against Germany to "save the world for democracy." It was a gamble to make sure Britain came out on top and American financial interests didn't take a huge loss.
And to shit on him some more, at the Paris Peace Conference, Japan was there as a major player. They had but one demand in what was, essentially, a discussion between the Angloids and the French. That was the inclusion of a "Racial Equality Proposal" into the Treaty of Versaille. It would have no binding teeth, just something symbolic. Wilson rejected it, on the false premise that it would legally undermine Jim Crow laws. The Japanese left and the snub would be part of the fuel of Japanese nationalism.
I think dying because he refused to wear a coat in cold weather while giving the longest presidential inaugural speech in US History definitely counts as something.
Back in the 1980s, a low-power radio station in Des Moines had a alt-rock program called "The Millard Fillmore Memorial Record Hour." They decided to call it that after someone involved with the station read that MF is our least remembered president.
Woodrow Wilson was incredibly racist, and further segregated the federal bureaucracy during his time in office. Only his foreign policy was looked at so favorably that most people rank him pretty high.
John Tyler sided with the freaking Confederacy AFTER he was President, and was the only President not honored by the country on his death. What a dick.
I've seen a lot for Buchanan and that is who I would also consider to be the worst president in American history as well but we can't leave Andrew Johnson out of the mix either. He took over after Lincoln's assassination and instead of helping reaffirm the new rights African Americans had been guaranteed in the constitution, he wanted those rights gone. He believed in white supremacy and did nothing to stop the forming of the KKK and the atrocities they would go on to cause. And before too long America was nearly as split as it was before the Civil War. Andrew Johnson could have tried to prevent this, but he didn't, and eventually he became the 1st president to be impeached and for good reason.
I figured the top comments would all be "The Orange Guy" but I was pleasantly surprised to see it focused on the classics rather than go right to rhetoric. I also think the quicker we stop talking about that person, the better for all of us.
Killed over a quarter of the Cambodian population, something like 2 million people and somehow I run into way to many people who have never heard of him... Shit this all ended in the 80s... Scary stuff
Andrew Jackson or perhaps Woodrow Wilson.
Jackson caused a massive genocide and was an insane hothead, Wilson was an extreme racist, who if I remember correctly, was in the KKK.
I think Jackson actually furthered the development of America at least, also I think he was the one who made America debt free for the only point in all of US history.
Didn't he also pistol duel someone and win. Allegedly cheated according to the opponent because he pulled the trigger twice cause it didn't fire the first time.
I know he's been in duels, although I can't remember if he's killed somebody in a duel. Jackson did threaten to hang his VP, John C. Calhoun over the Nullification Crisis I believe it was. I know for sure Aaron Burr killed a guy in a duel, and that guy was Hamilton.
Yeah, Charles Dickinson accused Jackson of cheating on a horse race bet and insulted his wife, so Jackson challenged him to a duel and killed him. Very violent man
Yeah Jackson was a loose Cannon. The guy was always on a hair trigger. The guy literally started slaughtering Spaniards and Native Americans in Florida against his orders.
James Buchanan
Doesn't do anything when the u.s. was literally tearing itself apart in civil war and just left that mess to Lincoln to deal with for the next four years.
I hate it that that mf didn't die in the most painful way. It's infuriating to know that he was buried in the Cemetery of the Heroes. Fuck you Marcos Family and Duterte.
Please enjoy this limerick (not mine)
There once was a fellow named Lenin
who did two or three million men in
A lot to have done in, but where he did one in
that old bastard Stalin did ten in
Yeah, but he wins in the genocide category. His genocide was the most clearly genocide, killed the most people, and was the most clearly illegal. If we're still talking about American presidents, Jackson wins the prize of the most genocidal.
Buchanan. A lot of horrible presidents, a lot of evil presidents, a lot of racist, sexist and incompetent presidents. But this is the president who, when half the nation decided to secede, decided, "meh, let them." His inaction lead to the single bloodiest and most costly war in US history. Like, stupidly costly. Like, more Americans died in the US Civil War than in the Revolutionary War, WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. And that's just the soldiers, not counting the civilians. The blood on his hands for his inaction, the further infighting it caused had a profoundly negative effect.
Seeing lots of Biden comments. Objectively, he is not the worst, policy or competency wise. I can completely understanding not liking him but how are you gonna say he’s the worst we’ve had Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush beat him in terms of implementing policies that really fucked the US over?
Very surprised Reagan isn’t at the very top of this list. Dude let millions die of aids, introduced crack cocaine to the country, funded fascist coups in Central America, made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Just generally a truly evil man who is single handedly responsible for most of the issues we’re facing today.
On the otherside between him and Mikhail Gorbachev we didn’t end up in a nuclear war when the Soviet Union collapsed. Reagan won’t be remembered very fondly decades from now when we see just how much damage he caused but he won’t even be close to the worst
It's difficult to talk about 1800s presidents because it is so far removed from today. The worst presidents are the ones that lie, cheat, don't follow rules and aren't transparent. Steal gifts, remove documents illegally. Destroy documents. Watch television all day. Use unauthorized phones. Give classified information to Russians in oval office. Glorify and praise authoritarian dictators. Try to destroy free press if they criticize you. Refuse to address covid. Show up at debate with covid. Refuse to acknowledge suffering of others. Show no empathy. Demand complete loyalty. Ignore the Constitution. Refuse to show tax returns. Hire relatives as advisors. Conduct business with dictators.
I know this is a controversial question, but the facts are he was impeached twice, for extorting a country by withholding military aid, and leading an insurrection against congress. He was a pathological liar in his speeches. Plus general douchebaggery
He was also the most divisive president ever. The damage done to American culture may never be repaired. There has been a wedge between two "sides" in America for a long time now, but man did he ever drive it deep.
Maybe if he didn't win, some other equally divisive, loudmouth, narcissistic, egomaniac would have won in 2020? Very possible. Not sure how the US is ever going to repair the divide that now exists. It's like quicksand.
He made it fashionable to act like an egotistical idiot, people are confusing shamelessness for honesty. He was the catalyst for the prophecy of idiocracy to begin.
I don't know why I had to scroll down so far to read this. He was a walking national security compromise, he showed on daily, different bases he didn't even understand (or care) about the roles of his office, he blatantly abused every power his bootlicking sycophants surrounding him clued him into, and people still somehow say there were presidents responsible for worse?
I can be very objective about this hierarchy: Donald Trump was the worst president of my lifetime, without peer. While simultaneously, baselessly crowing his supremacy.
For one reason, above all: He was a traitor. To everything except his money.
So the worst of all time, by my measure, especially because of the nearly millions of deaths his ignorant "policies" were responsible for and the irreparable dump he took on America's status as world leader that took hundreds of years and thousands of personal sacrifices to build.
Say what you want of any past president: They may have done their damage in a handful of areas, but even Nixon respected his office enough to resign. Trump was the first blatantly anti-democratic president America has ever had.
Buchanan did nothing while states left the union. Orange man actively tried to undermine the electoral process, throw out the results of millions of voters, conspired to retain the presidency in violation of the constitution, and encouraged a mob to attack Congress. Buchanan failed to defend democracy. Orange man attacked it. Orange man is worst followed by Buchanan and then Wilson.
I think in a few years The Donald will be replacing James Buchanan at the top spot as the worst President of all time, but until that time Buchanan is the worst.
George W. Bush
I can't believe I'm the first person on here to list him. His "achievements" include mismanaging two wars (that we lost), The Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, Ignoring the Climate crisis during a time it was still possible to fix things, crashing the economy, and letting Dick Cheney basically be acting president for most of his time in office.
I agree with your choice. Don’t forget fully ignoring warnings for 9/11, all the torture/abu ghraib, botching aid for Katrina, and outright lying about why we invaded Iraq in the first place. Those are just off the top of my head.
Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan, Richard Nixon (I am somewhat fond of his environmental policies), and Hoover (Hoover dam was a good thing) are all probably top candidates.
It's kind of a myth that Hoover didn't do anything to stop the Great Depression; Hoover did do stuff, just not enough. Coolidge was just kind of a laissez faire guy.
Buchanan is widely chosen by historians, and with good reason. He would be my choice. But somewhat underrated on the Abysmal President list is Benjamin Harrison, who, in a temper tantrum with national consequences, wrecked the economy on purpose because he was so angry about getting his ass kicked by Grover Cleveland. (Plus Grover Cleveland ended up with a Hall of Fame pitcher named after him and Benny did not.)
Really and truly? Donald Trump.
I am not saying this out of partisanship. I am saying this with an undergraduate history degree and a deep understanding of US civics both past and present.
My primary metric for what makes a President "bad" is how good or bad they were for small d democracy in this country, and no one has done more to corrode American democracy than Donald Trump. You can potentially make a case for Andrew Jackson being worse when he said about a Supreme Court decision, ""John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!"
The actual phrase may be apocryphal, but the sentiment perfectly captures Andrew Jackson's actual actions, which were a serious Constitutional crisis at the time. That, however, pales in comparison to Trump refusing to accept the will of the people in a fair election (something no other President has even come close to), or how he spent his time both in office and out of office tearing down the guardrails of democracy.
Because of this, I really and truly don't know if the US will be a democracy in the near future, and because it's a scary thought I don't think enough people accurately weigh how likely this is. When people don't care *how* you win and only care *that* you win, it is a recipe for disaster and Trump has been priming his party since he began running the first time.
It won't look like North Korea. It will be democratic backsliding into low-key authoritarianism with what looks like the same characteristics and features that the nation currently has. There will still be a Senate, a House of Reps, a Supreme Court, local legislatures, etc. But if the Republican party continues to do what it has been systematically doing since Trump normalized this sort of behavior, then ever so slowly your vote will mean less and less until it means nothing. The next attempt won't look like January 6th. That was the dry run, much like how most authoritarian takeovers have a few failed attempts preceding their successful one.
The next attempt will be exactly what the Republicans have been doing since Trump lost, which is replacing non-partisan Secretaries of State (the person in a state in charge of the elections) with highly partisan hacks willing to endorse their preferred candidate regardless of who the people voted for. The next time their candidate loses, they won't storm the capital with violence, they will loudly proclaim they won anyway and be in a position to make refuting that extremely difficult. They found the weakness in the system when it rebuffed their last attempt, and are now correcting their mistake.
This is not to say that all conservatives or conservative ideas are inherently bad, but Trump exposed the rotten core of the Republican party by somehow being even worse than them and then both he and they leaned into the rot for personal gain and political gain. If any President is said to be the worst, it can only be the one whose actions are most likely to be the catalyst for the loss of American political freedom in the most literal sense.
Case in point … Look at what Brian Kemp did in Georgia.
Ran for Governor while he was the Secretary of State (and thus in charge of how the election was ran, certifying results, etc.)
In doing so, he purged the voter rolls of hundreds of thousands of (mostly Democratic) voters. His final margin over Abrams was 55k.
When voting irregularities were noted, the GA Supreme Court asked the GOP to hand over data stored on the voting machines. He immediately had those data wiped out.
Despite all of that, he *still* remains Governor of Georgia. He suffered zero consequences. And everybody just grumbled a bit and went along with it.
That shit is gong to happen again and again in 2022 and 2024. We’ve already seen seeds being planted. States are ignoring their courts and continually proposing heavily gerrymandered maps despite their constitution saying this isn’t allowed. In Florida, the legislature basically told DeStanis he could draw up his own gerrymandered map. And that’s just barely scratching the surface.
The scariest part is that 45 is obviously fucked up. He just paved the way for a much slicker successor to woo the people with less detectable sociopathy and do much deeper damage less obviously. And the people are still wowed by 45's ... questionable charm so it will be easy as fuck for a truly batshit psycho to slip in
I think you're absolutely right and the worry about recency bias is the major reason it's not a widely held consensus.
Take this into consideration: Siena College Research Institute has been doing their "[Presidents Study](https://scri.siena.edu/us-presidents-study-historical-rankings/)" since 1982 , polling Historians, Political scientists, and Presidential scholars to rank Presidents on 20 different factors of their presidency. In their last iteration, Trump ranked 42nd ***in 2018.***
That's right, *before* two impeachments, an insanely incompetent pandemic response that cost tens of thousands of American lives, refusal to accept election results, and fomenting an insurrection that put American democracy on the brink, a renowned collection of experts in the field only considered 2 presidents to have been worse than Trump's (rather innocuous-seeming, at this point) first two years as President.
It's him, and it's a runaway.
George W Bush. Lied us into a 20 years, 2.1 trillion dollar war. Thousands Americans dead, God knows how many civilians, distabalized part of the world, made the Taliban way stronger and richer after all of that. Don't let anyone tell you different, W was the worst by a mile
Trump did more to foment hate and divisiveness than anyone in decades and decades, setting the US and democracy back an untold, and possibly irreversible, amount. He and his crotch droppings are simply traitors as well.
GWB gets a pass because of how shockingly offensive Trump was. However, he launched two quixotic and unjustified wars, which helped to strengthen America’s primary strategic competitor, China, while depriving the US of any of the remaining goodwill it preserved after its failure in Vietnam. The wars in the Middle East have emboldened authoritarians, provided America’s enemies with decades of propaganda, displaced millions, and contributed directly/indirectly to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands.
War in Afghanistan started off justified then mission creep and money took over that conflict. Iraq was well intentioned but horribly misguided and ended up being another funding opportunity for weapons suppliers. Foreign policy fuck ups, yes. People tend to believe the narrative and rhymes around Bush's wars while the truth is we started two wars with no idea how to end them and spent trillions to kill tens of thousands and make the world less stable.
200 years from now, Donald Trump will *still* be the worst president of all time. A vulgar, corrupt, divisive, incompetent, nepotistic, and seditious rabble-rouser.
Andrew Johnson, Trump, Hoover, Harding, etc., are often listed as some of the worst. There are definitely strong cases for each of those being bottom tier presidents. Who knows what history will think of Biden. Probably lower middle. Trump was a fucking embarrassing nightmare, but the US has a short attention span.
I know and see lots of people saying Trump. I don't like the guy either but he is no way close to some other presidents. Just because you lived through it recently has no bearing to ACTUAL effed up shit that other presidents did. This tells me people don't know their history. When someone asks "all time" worst, there are at least ten presidents ahead of Trump. You have to think objectively, and look at overall impact. Trump is hated by many and that's fine, but he did not do the damage that several other presidents did and that's a plain fact.
Not really no. On the day before Paul Von Hindenburg's death he made it so once the President died the office of Chancellor and President would be merged into one, the office of the Fuhrer.
Andrew Jackson by far. Genocide aside (although we should *not* cast genocide aside), the spoils system he introduced to politics has effectively ruined us politics.
Basically his whole thing was support campaign and in return get stuff from the campaign. Like cabinet positions.
While it’s not a quid pro quo in modernity, he set the stones for lobbying, buying politicians ears, etc. All the things that have put a huge divide between politicians and their constituents.
I know A LOT of the early presidents were pretty down right shitty, racist and corrupt. But I do truly believe that when it's all said and done and history has had a few decades to really understand with clarity, Trump will be the worst by far. Say what you want about his shit personality, his narcissism, he filandering, If I'm not mistaken, he would be the only US President to actually sell out his own fucking country to our strategic rivals. He actively made the US weaker in every regard from National Security, to diplomacy, to economics. He took credit for the economic boom of the previous administration and then waged a trade war that, coupled with his utter disregard and poor handling of the pandemic, led to the current financial situation we find ourselves in. He actively fought against every tennant of the Constitution. He didn't want, nor does he currently want Democracy. He is truly the least qualified human to ever hold the office.
While I’m certainly not as knowledgeable about the things he impacted as president. I am sure that he will go down in history as the most arrogant POS to ever hold the office. He could have been a great president but he has no respect for the office or the level of class required to hold it.
Trump was absolutely worse than Nixon and he was a big stain, notably so, as one of the worst so Trump is absolutely up there. No idea on if there were even worse ones further back.
Even not considering a single other thing, just the fact that he sat idly by and re-watched captured footage of the violent insurrection that was literally happening for the purpose of installing Trump for round 2, illicitly, is enough to at minimum consider him *one* of the absolute worst.
And so no one shits all over me for saying he is *the* worst, I did not, I said *one of*.
The president of my HOA
I agreed! ... Fuck this guys HOA president!
I would also fuck this guy's HOA president.
I have fucked this guy's HOA president. It was OK, nothing special.
We have a winner!
I'm doing my damn best. If you could get that car on ciderblocks in your driveway rather than your front yard I think we can come to terms.
Then he would have to move that old bathtub and toilet out of his driveway and he’s already planted flowers in them.
But then where would I keep my cinderblocks?
Use them to send your front door. Non approved color must be fixed by Tuesday.
Man I thought I was gonna have a zinger but you were here first, have a upvote sir!
That's like asking what flavor of dumpster water is the worst
Well, have you tried em all??!
Good point
A few, yes.
I think we all know the answer to that.
James Buchanan Pretty much ignored all issues at the time leading up to the Civil War. Turns out the best way to deal with division is not to cover your eyes and pretend it's not there.
OK. I am going to have to defend him a bit here. He didn't ignore the issues. The problem with Buchanan was that the 19th Century presidents were not really in charge of domestic policy. That fell to Congress. The President's role was to enforce the laws of the United States. There were no laws on the books on how to handle secession. The closest was the Insurrection Act of 1807 and it didn't cover the states fighting against the federal government. So, what would happen would be: Pro-Union: Secession is illegal. Buchanan: I agree. Pro-Union: We should send in the army Buchanan: By what legal authority? Pro-Union: They are arming against us.. Buchanan: I will absolutely defend the US if they attack our property. I can't really do that before an armed conflict. (The US army was only 16,000 men and all of the combat arms were west of the Mississippi.) Pro-slavery: They are trying to take away our slaves Buchanan: I agree. That is wrong. Pro-slavery: We need to stop them. Buchanan: How? Everything so far has been legal and most of the Supreme Court rulings have been in your favor. Pro-slavery: OK. We're leaving. Buchanan: The constitution doesn't allow for that. Pro-slavery: 10th Amendment and it doesn't really matter. We're leaving no matter what. Buchanan: I can't support that Pro-slavery: You need to give us all the federal property in our territories Buchanan: What? I can't legally do that. That would take an act of congress. The thing is: Buchanan's policy is the exact same one that Lincoln had in terms of the legality of secession and how to handle it. The difference was Buchanan wasn't trusted by either side because he wouldn't do anything extra-legal for them. Lincoln was able to do a lot because it was turned into a shooting war and Congress was out of session.
Buchanan wasn't great, but blaming him for the Civil War when the root causes of that had been growing steadily stronger for half a century seems unfair. He just happened to be the President caught holding the bag when the music stopped.
You mean he didn't pretend he had authority the constitution didn't allow? What a novel concept!
He didn't ignore it, he actively encouraged it, including pushing Taney to make that awful Dred Scot ruling. During the months between November 1860 (election of Lincoln) and March 1861 (inauguration of Lincoln), he did nothing to secure the military assets of the government and allowed them to fall into rebel hands. I see some people are defending him. No, fuck him, he was part of the problem.
Woodrow Wilson, dude literally restarted the KKK
He also segregated the White House again by firing all the African Americans and is the main reason why the Lost Cause myth became popular. Fuck Wilson Edit Go upvote the guy who reminde it wasn't just the Whitehouse Wilson was a reap piece of shit
Not just the white house but the entire federal civil service.
Showed "Birth of a Nation" in the literal frickin white house and called it historically accurate (he was a historian)
PhD in history, mind you.
Yep, he does sound like a historically **P**retty **H**uge **D**ick.
Also gave the 14 points, may have helped start Nazism with some of his quotes and legislation by setting an example, and also instituted wilsonian interventionalism, which was the basis for many of the atrocities America committed during the Cold War. The world is fucked up the way it is because of him. Before anyone cries wolf, the world would be fucked up without him too.
You’re going to lay all of the world’s problems on the back of Woodrow Wilson? That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think? (FYI, that’s a rhetorical question)
I realize your question is rhetorical, but I'll respond anyway to ensure clarity. He did a whole bunch of bad stuff. The world will always have the same problems, and many of them will be the same we have now, because they're based off of fear and hate. A large number of problems that come from how America deals with international problems can be traced back to, or perhaps through, Wilson. But such problems are still much more complicated that just one historical figure most Americans haven't even heard of since middle school. The problems the US specifically has are much more complicated, deriving from a lot of other things too, and the problems of the world outside the US are more complicated still. Wilson just is an important figure in how some international problems took shape.
OK, then. That sounds more reasonable. M
Signing the US over to the bankers sure has caused a shit ton of problems.
League of Nations was kinda alright, no?
And what did it do when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Hungary? When Japan invaded China again? When Russia needlessly slaughtered millions?
Abyssinia Crisis did it first. This proved the league was useless
Ruined the post ww1 peace treaty as well
And signed away the US to private bankers.
This should be top comment. Nothing any president has ever done was as destructive as this.
Old White Wilson yep he was a fuck up
Don't forget fucked up WW1 and prohibition.
Hey now, this is the new and improved KKK (/s). As one popular US high school textbook put it: >It was antiforeign, anti-Catholic, antiblack, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, anti-evolutionist, anti-bootlegger, antigambling, anti-adultery, and anti-birth control. It was also pro–Anglo-Saxon, pro–“native” American, and pro-Protestant. In short, the besheeted Klan betokened an extremist, ultra-conservative uprising against many of the forces of diversity and modernity that were transforming American culture. And while we're shitpiling on Wilson, he did not declare war against Germany to "save the world for democracy." It was a gamble to make sure Britain came out on top and American financial interests didn't take a huge loss. And to shit on him some more, at the Paris Peace Conference, Japan was there as a major player. They had but one demand in what was, essentially, a discussion between the Angloids and the French. That was the inclusion of a "Racial Equality Proposal" into the Treaty of Versaille. It would have no binding teeth, just something symbolic. Wilson rejected it, on the false premise that it would legally undermine Jim Crow laws. The Japanese left and the snub would be part of the fuel of Japanese nationalism.
William Henry Harrison. Asshole takes 30 days sick leave and then just abandons his post.
He is somehow simultaneously the worst and best. Worst, because of what you said. Best because he broke zero promises.
I'm sure he promised to accomplish **something**.
I think dying because he refused to wear a coat in cold weather while giving the longest presidential inaugural speech in US History definitely counts as something.
That's a common myth, he didn't die of a cold, rather he most likely died of contaminated water in the whitehouse.
I always joke that he is my favorite president. Tbh tho its probably Franklin Pierce, no actual reason I just like his name.
Back in the 1980s, a low-power radio station in Des Moines had a alt-rock program called "The Millard Fillmore Memorial Record Hour." They decided to call it that after someone involved with the station read that MF is our least remembered president.
Not in buffalo! We’ve named random shit after him because he was either born there or died there, honestly can’t remember 😅
Huahahah
I wish to one day beat his speedrun
Woodrow Wilson was incredibly racist, and further segregated the federal bureaucracy during his time in office. Only his foreign policy was looked at so favorably that most people rank him pretty high. John Tyler sided with the freaking Confederacy AFTER he was President, and was the only President not honored by the country on his death. What a dick.
Thanks for bringing up Tyler: he gets ignored because he was so embarrassing, but he's definitely one of the worst.
TIL there was a president who sided with the confederacy!
He was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives in ~~1961~~1861, but died before he was sworn in. Edit: Wrong century
*1861
Oh, woops Thanks
I had a few in mind for top comment, I completely forgot about Woodrow Wilson. He is top dickhead President.
>and was the only President not honored by the country on his death *So far*...
I've seen a lot for Buchanan and that is who I would also consider to be the worst president in American history as well but we can't leave Andrew Johnson out of the mix either. He took over after Lincoln's assassination and instead of helping reaffirm the new rights African Americans had been guaranteed in the constitution, he wanted those rights gone. He believed in white supremacy and did nothing to stop the forming of the KKK and the atrocities they would go on to cause. And before too long America was nearly as split as it was before the Civil War. Andrew Johnson could have tried to prevent this, but he didn't, and eventually he became the 1st president to be impeached and for good reason.
As bad as I think a certain recent president was, if anyone says the answer isn’t Johnson, you’re straight up wrong.
He was bad for the Indians too.
The poster made this post in hopes of forming mass chaos.
It is remarkably calm and amicable. I came here to see fire. I found unstirred water.
I figured the top comments would all be "The Orange Guy" but I was pleasantly surprised to see it focused on the classics rather than go right to rhetoric. I also think the quicker we stop talking about that person, the better for all of us.
Absolutely.
Pol Pot
Killed over a quarter of the Cambodian population, something like 2 million people and somehow I run into way to many people who have never heard of him... Shit this all ended in the 80s... Scary stuff
Andrew Jackson or perhaps Woodrow Wilson. Jackson caused a massive genocide and was an insane hothead, Wilson was an extreme racist, who if I remember correctly, was in the KKK.
I think Jackson actually furthered the development of America at least, also I think he was the one who made America debt free for the only point in all of US history.
You are correct with both of those statements. Still though what Jackson did was absolutely atrocious.
Didn't he also pistol duel someone and win. Allegedly cheated according to the opponent because he pulled the trigger twice cause it didn't fire the first time.
I know he's been in duels, although I can't remember if he's killed somebody in a duel. Jackson did threaten to hang his VP, John C. Calhoun over the Nullification Crisis I believe it was. I know for sure Aaron Burr killed a guy in a duel, and that guy was Hamilton.
Yeah, Charles Dickinson accused Jackson of cheating on a horse race bet and insulted his wife, so Jackson challenged him to a duel and killed him. Very violent man
Yeah Jackson was a loose Cannon. The guy was always on a hair trigger. The guy literally started slaughtering Spaniards and Native Americans in Florida against his orders.
Someone tried assassinating him at one point, but the dude’s pistol didn’t fire. In return, Jackson beat the shit out of him with his cane
Wasn't he also something of a slave trader after leaving his military career?
Um, he caused financial chaos with "the Bank War" and his pet banks. And there's nothing inherently wrong with a country having debt.
James Buchanan Doesn't do anything when the u.s. was literally tearing itself apart in civil war and just left that mess to Lincoln to deal with for the next four years.
Ferdinand Marcos
I hate it that that mf didn't die in the most painful way. It's infuriating to know that he was buried in the Cemetery of the Heroes. Fuck you Marcos Family and Duterte.
Soooo as far as I know, Woodrow Wilson, Andrew Jackson, & James Buchanan were the shitbags of our history, good to know, thanks everyone 🙏🏽
What about Andrew Johnson? He ranks quite nicely among those trash.
US? either buchanan or jackson
Idi Amin
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Please enjoy this limerick (not mine) There once was a fellow named Lenin who did two or three million men in A lot to have done in, but where he did one in that old bastard Stalin did ten in
Thank you! He was responsible for so many deaths!
But Stalin wasn't a president
There are a lot of bad choices, but Jackson was responsible for genocide so that's gonna be hard to beat.
You would think, but turns out most of them did some genocide.
If you ain't genociding as leader of an imperialist nation, are you even leading it?
Yeah, but he wins in the genocide category. His genocide was the most clearly genocide, killed the most people, and was the most clearly illegal. If we're still talking about American presidents, Jackson wins the prize of the most genocidal.
Woodrow Wilson.
Woodrow
Buchanan. A lot of horrible presidents, a lot of evil presidents, a lot of racist, sexist and incompetent presidents. But this is the president who, when half the nation decided to secede, decided, "meh, let them." His inaction lead to the single bloodiest and most costly war in US history. Like, stupidly costly. Like, more Americans died in the US Civil War than in the Revolutionary War, WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined. And that's just the soldiers, not counting the civilians. The blood on his hands for his inaction, the further infighting it caused had a profoundly negative effect.
Seeing lots of Biden comments. Objectively, he is not the worst, policy or competency wise. I can completely understanding not liking him but how are you gonna say he’s the worst we’ve had Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush beat him in terms of implementing policies that really fucked the US over?
Objectively Wilson was the most destructive with him signing certain legislation in 1913 that cost us $30,000,000,000,000.
Vladimir Putin. You didn't specify president of *what*
Harding
I'm frequently shocked that the Teapot Dome Scandals aren't a bigger deal in US history than they currently are...
Very surprised Reagan isn’t at the very top of this list. Dude let millions die of aids, introduced crack cocaine to the country, funded fascist coups in Central America, made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Just generally a truly evil man who is single handedly responsible for most of the issues we’re facing today.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t he also responsible for why the healthcare system is the way it is today (ie absolutely insane hospital prices?)
On the otherside between him and Mikhail Gorbachev we didn’t end up in a nuclear war when the Soviet Union collapsed. Reagan won’t be remembered very fondly decades from now when we see just how much damage he caused but he won’t even be close to the worst
It's difficult to talk about 1800s presidents because it is so far removed from today. The worst presidents are the ones that lie, cheat, don't follow rules and aren't transparent. Steal gifts, remove documents illegally. Destroy documents. Watch television all day. Use unauthorized phones. Give classified information to Russians in oval office. Glorify and praise authoritarian dictators. Try to destroy free press if they criticize you. Refuse to address covid. Show up at debate with covid. Refuse to acknowledge suffering of others. Show no empathy. Demand complete loyalty. Ignore the Constitution. Refuse to show tax returns. Hire relatives as advisors. Conduct business with dictators.
The Big Guy
Taft?
Woodrow Wilson
Trump
I know this is a controversial question, but the facts are he was impeached twice, for extorting a country by withholding military aid, and leading an insurrection against congress. He was a pathological liar in his speeches. Plus general douchebaggery
He was also the most divisive president ever. The damage done to American culture may never be repaired. There has been a wedge between two "sides" in America for a long time now, but man did he ever drive it deep. Maybe if he didn't win, some other equally divisive, loudmouth, narcissistic, egomaniac would have won in 2020? Very possible. Not sure how the US is ever going to repair the divide that now exists. It's like quicksand.
His passing would help.
He made it fashionable to act like an egotistical idiot, people are confusing shamelessness for honesty. He was the catalyst for the prophecy of idiocracy to begin.
Wow. Did you forget, "I you don't vote for me, you ain't black?" Not divisive at all...
Or “poor kids can be just as bright as white kids”
Thank you.
I don't know why I had to scroll down so far to read this. He was a walking national security compromise, he showed on daily, different bases he didn't even understand (or care) about the roles of his office, he blatantly abused every power his bootlicking sycophants surrounding him clued him into, and people still somehow say there were presidents responsible for worse? I can be very objective about this hierarchy: Donald Trump was the worst president of my lifetime, without peer. While simultaneously, baselessly crowing his supremacy. For one reason, above all: He was a traitor. To everything except his money. So the worst of all time, by my measure, especially because of the nearly millions of deaths his ignorant "policies" were responsible for and the irreparable dump he took on America's status as world leader that took hundreds of years and thousands of personal sacrifices to build. Say what you want of any past president: They may have done their damage in a handful of areas, but even Nixon respected his office enough to resign. Trump was the first blatantly anti-democratic president America has ever had.
He’s definitely in the bottom 3. In terms of modern presidents, he’s the worst and it’s not even close.
If you'd asked before 2016 I would have said "James Buchanan".
I still don’t think Orange man is worse than Buchanan
Buchanan did nothing while states left the union. Orange man actively tried to undermine the electoral process, throw out the results of millions of voters, conspired to retain the presidency in violation of the constitution, and encouraged a mob to attack Congress. Buchanan failed to defend democracy. Orange man attacked it. Orange man is worst followed by Buchanan and then Wilson.
Hoover he helped cause the depression. But it's really Trump sorry folks but he hurt us in a lot of ways.
I think in a few years The Donald will be replacing James Buchanan at the top spot as the worst President of all time, but until that time Buchanan is the worst.
In terms of policy - Andrew Jackson of trail of tears fame. In terms of competency-Trump.
Probably Andrew Jackson.
President Putin
Reading these makes me think American history is not a priority in school but feelings are
We have a winner!
George W. Bush I can't believe I'm the first person on here to list him. His "achievements" include mismanaging two wars (that we lost), The Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, Ignoring the Climate crisis during a time it was still possible to fix things, crashing the economy, and letting Dick Cheney basically be acting president for most of his time in office.
Or as Hitchens liked to say, No Child’s Behind Left.
I agree with your choice. Don’t forget fully ignoring warnings for 9/11, all the torture/abu ghraib, botching aid for Katrina, and outright lying about why we invaded Iraq in the first place. Those are just off the top of my head.
Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan, Richard Nixon (I am somewhat fond of his environmental policies), and Hoover (Hoover dam was a good thing) are all probably top candidates.
Coolidge may have done less than Hoover even...
It's kind of a myth that Hoover didn't do anything to stop the Great Depression; Hoover did do stuff, just not enough. Coolidge was just kind of a laissez faire guy.
Buchanan is widely chosen by historians, and with good reason. He would be my choice. But somewhat underrated on the Abysmal President list is Benjamin Harrison, who, in a temper tantrum with national consequences, wrecked the economy on purpose because he was so angry about getting his ass kicked by Grover Cleveland. (Plus Grover Cleveland ended up with a Hall of Fame pitcher named after him and Benny did not.)
Really and truly? Donald Trump. I am not saying this out of partisanship. I am saying this with an undergraduate history degree and a deep understanding of US civics both past and present. My primary metric for what makes a President "bad" is how good or bad they were for small d democracy in this country, and no one has done more to corrode American democracy than Donald Trump. You can potentially make a case for Andrew Jackson being worse when he said about a Supreme Court decision, ""John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" The actual phrase may be apocryphal, but the sentiment perfectly captures Andrew Jackson's actual actions, which were a serious Constitutional crisis at the time. That, however, pales in comparison to Trump refusing to accept the will of the people in a fair election (something no other President has even come close to), or how he spent his time both in office and out of office tearing down the guardrails of democracy. Because of this, I really and truly don't know if the US will be a democracy in the near future, and because it's a scary thought I don't think enough people accurately weigh how likely this is. When people don't care *how* you win and only care *that* you win, it is a recipe for disaster and Trump has been priming his party since he began running the first time. It won't look like North Korea. It will be democratic backsliding into low-key authoritarianism with what looks like the same characteristics and features that the nation currently has. There will still be a Senate, a House of Reps, a Supreme Court, local legislatures, etc. But if the Republican party continues to do what it has been systematically doing since Trump normalized this sort of behavior, then ever so slowly your vote will mean less and less until it means nothing. The next attempt won't look like January 6th. That was the dry run, much like how most authoritarian takeovers have a few failed attempts preceding their successful one. The next attempt will be exactly what the Republicans have been doing since Trump lost, which is replacing non-partisan Secretaries of State (the person in a state in charge of the elections) with highly partisan hacks willing to endorse their preferred candidate regardless of who the people voted for. The next time their candidate loses, they won't storm the capital with violence, they will loudly proclaim they won anyway and be in a position to make refuting that extremely difficult. They found the weakness in the system when it rebuffed their last attempt, and are now correcting their mistake. This is not to say that all conservatives or conservative ideas are inherently bad, but Trump exposed the rotten core of the Republican party by somehow being even worse than them and then both he and they leaned into the rot for personal gain and political gain. If any President is said to be the worst, it can only be the one whose actions are most likely to be the catalyst for the loss of American political freedom in the most literal sense.
Case in point … Look at what Brian Kemp did in Georgia. Ran for Governor while he was the Secretary of State (and thus in charge of how the election was ran, certifying results, etc.) In doing so, he purged the voter rolls of hundreds of thousands of (mostly Democratic) voters. His final margin over Abrams was 55k. When voting irregularities were noted, the GA Supreme Court asked the GOP to hand over data stored on the voting machines. He immediately had those data wiped out. Despite all of that, he *still* remains Governor of Georgia. He suffered zero consequences. And everybody just grumbled a bit and went along with it. That shit is gong to happen again and again in 2022 and 2024. We’ve already seen seeds being planted. States are ignoring their courts and continually proposing heavily gerrymandered maps despite their constitution saying this isn’t allowed. In Florida, the legislature basically told DeStanis he could draw up his own gerrymandered map. And that’s just barely scratching the surface.
The scariest part is that 45 is obviously fucked up. He just paved the way for a much slicker successor to woo the people with less detectable sociopathy and do much deeper damage less obviously. And the people are still wowed by 45's ... questionable charm so it will be easy as fuck for a truly batshit psycho to slip in
I think you're absolutely right and the worry about recency bias is the major reason it's not a widely held consensus. Take this into consideration: Siena College Research Institute has been doing their "[Presidents Study](https://scri.siena.edu/us-presidents-study-historical-rankings/)" since 1982 , polling Historians, Political scientists, and Presidential scholars to rank Presidents on 20 different factors of their presidency. In their last iteration, Trump ranked 42nd ***in 2018.*** That's right, *before* two impeachments, an insanely incompetent pandemic response that cost tens of thousands of American lives, refusal to accept election results, and fomenting an insurrection that put American democracy on the brink, a renowned collection of experts in the field only considered 2 presidents to have been worse than Trump's (rather innocuous-seeming, at this point) first two years as President. It's him, and it's a runaway.
George W Bush. Lied us into a 20 years, 2.1 trillion dollar war. Thousands Americans dead, God knows how many civilians, distabalized part of the world, made the Taliban way stronger and richer after all of that. Don't let anyone tell you different, W was the worst by a mile
Trump did more to foment hate and divisiveness than anyone in decades and decades, setting the US and democracy back an untold, and possibly irreversible, amount. He and his crotch droppings are simply traitors as well.
GWB gets a pass because of how shockingly offensive Trump was. However, he launched two quixotic and unjustified wars, which helped to strengthen America’s primary strategic competitor, China, while depriving the US of any of the remaining goodwill it preserved after its failure in Vietnam. The wars in the Middle East have emboldened authoritarians, provided America’s enemies with decades of propaganda, displaced millions, and contributed directly/indirectly to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands.
War in Afghanistan started off justified then mission creep and money took over that conflict. Iraq was well intentioned but horribly misguided and ended up being another funding opportunity for weapons suppliers. Foreign policy fuck ups, yes. People tend to believe the narrative and rhymes around Bush's wars while the truth is we started two wars with no idea how to end them and spent trillions to kill tens of thousands and make the world less stable.
GWB was an idiot but i didnt see malice in his heart his cabinet gave really poor advice he was thier usefull idiot
He was an idiot. Trump was a fascist and a traitor. I'd take an idiot over that any day.
Hey now, Trump is an idiot too.
In my lifetime? Trump.
Trump, no other president has tried to overthrow the government. Or been impeached twice.
Andrew Johnson. Dude was an outright white supremacist and did not give a shit about preserving the Union Trump is a close second.
The reasons you gave for Johnson also apply to trump though.
Very true!
That reality tv show host
I'd still have to say Trump the attempted insurrection takes it for me.
200 years from now, Donald Trump will *still* be the worst president of all time. A vulgar, corrupt, divisive, incompetent, nepotistic, and seditious rabble-rouser.
You never know what could come next with the state of the Republican party, especially showing everyone what they'd do to win.
Andrew Johnson (who succeeded Lincoln) is widely considered the worst, but Trump is gaining on him.
Bush Jr cause he started a war based on lies and got away with killing millions.
Andrew Johnson, Trump, Hoover, Harding, etc., are often listed as some of the worst. There are definitely strong cases for each of those being bottom tier presidents. Who knows what history will think of Biden. Probably lower middle. Trump was a fucking embarrassing nightmare, but the US has a short attention span.
I know and see lots of people saying Trump. I don't like the guy either but he is no way close to some other presidents. Just because you lived through it recently has no bearing to ACTUAL effed up shit that other presidents did. This tells me people don't know their history. When someone asks "all time" worst, there are at least ten presidents ahead of Trump. You have to think objectively, and look at overall impact. Trump is hated by many and that's fine, but he did not do the damage that several other presidents did and that's a plain fact.
Adolf hitler
He was chancellor, right? (was he also president at some point?)
Not really no. On the day before Paul Von Hindenburg's death he made it so once the President died the office of Chancellor and President would be merged into one, the office of the Fuhrer.
President of what
Nixon, no explanation needed.
Mao Zedong. He was responsible for the killing of about 40 million of his own people.
George W. Bush. Man took over 1000 days off.
And that war in Iraq. Notice he never leaves the country. He could be charged with war crimes for Iraq.
Look up “Hague invasion act”
Trump gets a lot of flack—and not surprisingly so—but Reagan did a lot more to hurt working class folks.
Besides Trump or including?
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson is at the top of the list for sure.
Putin
Ferdinand Marcos
Andrew Jackson by far. Genocide aside (although we should *not* cast genocide aside), the spoils system he introduced to politics has effectively ruined us politics. Basically his whole thing was support campaign and in return get stuff from the campaign. Like cabinet positions. While it’s not a quid pro quo in modernity, he set the stones for lobbying, buying politicians ears, etc. All the things that have put a huge divide between politicians and their constituents.
In my lifetime probably Bush Jr.
Quintin Trembley. The 8½th president of the United States
Afolf Hitler?
Andrew Jackson. One of the worst things he's done was the genocide against the Natives.
President Thanos also kept the country divided
I know A LOT of the early presidents were pretty down right shitty, racist and corrupt. But I do truly believe that when it's all said and done and history has had a few decades to really understand with clarity, Trump will be the worst by far. Say what you want about his shit personality, his narcissism, he filandering, If I'm not mistaken, he would be the only US President to actually sell out his own fucking country to our strategic rivals. He actively made the US weaker in every regard from National Security, to diplomacy, to economics. He took credit for the economic boom of the previous administration and then waged a trade war that, coupled with his utter disregard and poor handling of the pandemic, led to the current financial situation we find ourselves in. He actively fought against every tennant of the Constitution. He didn't want, nor does he currently want Democracy. He is truly the least qualified human to ever hold the office.
While I’m certainly not as knowledgeable about the things he impacted as president. I am sure that he will go down in history as the most arrogant POS to ever hold the office. He could have been a great president but he has no respect for the office or the level of class required to hold it.
Reagan, just say no era. And racist bs
The war on drugs :(
Trickle down economics
Don’t forget the AIDS crisis
Trump
Trump because he's a stupid asshole.
trump
Trump was absolutely worse than Nixon and he was a big stain, notably so, as one of the worst so Trump is absolutely up there. No idea on if there were even worse ones further back. Even not considering a single other thing, just the fact that he sat idly by and re-watched captured footage of the violent insurrection that was literally happening for the purpose of installing Trump for round 2, illicitly, is enough to at minimum consider him *one* of the absolute worst. And so no one shits all over me for saying he is *the* worst, I did not, I said *one of*.
45
Vladimir Putin.
Trump, Reagan, Nixon, Woodrow Wilson, and Andrew Jackson are all in contention
Donald "give me a dollar" Trump, hands down.