Ranking the "worst" anything is basically a trap. You’ve got personal bias, political leaning, and the benefit of hindsight doing a lot of the heavy lifting. But historians—the folks who spend their lives digging through dusty diaries and legislative failures—actually agree on a few names more often than you’d think.
When people ask who are the 5 worst presidents in us history, they usually expect names they recognize from modern news cycles. Honestly, though? The real "winners" of the bottom tier are mostly guys from the 1850s who watched the country catch fire and decided to bring a bellows instead of a bucket.
The Consensus Failures: Why These Names Keep Popping Up
Historians at Siena College and C-SPAN have been running these polls for decades. It’s not just about being unpopular. It’s about institutional damage. We’re talking about guys who fundamentally broke the gears of government.
1. James Buchanan (1857–1861)
Most scholars place James Buchanan at the absolute bottom of the pile. Why? Because he had one job: stop the Civil War. Instead, he basically sat on his hands while the Union disintegrated.
Buchanan was a "doughface"—a Northerner with Southern sympathies. He didn't just ignore the slavery issue; he actively pressured a Supreme Court justice to rule against Dred Scott, which basically told Black Americans they had no rights the white man was bound to respect. When Southern states started seceding after Lincoln was elected, Buchanan’s response was essentially a shrug. He argued that while secession was illegal, he didn't have the power to stop it. Talk about a "not my problem" attitude at the worst possible moment in American history.
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2. Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)
If Buchanan failed to prevent the war, Andrew Johnson failed the peace. Taking over after Lincoln’s assassination, he was a stubborn, deeply racist Southern Democrat who hated the "Radical Republicans" in Congress.
He spent his entire term vetoing civil rights bills. He tried to block the 14th Amendment. He basically wanted to let the Southern planter class run things exactly as they had before the war, minus the literal chains. His defiance led to the first-ever presidential impeachment. He survived removal by a single vote, but he was a total lame duck afterward. His legacy? Setting the stage for Jim Crow and another century of systemic inequality.
3. Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)
Franklin Pierce is often forgotten, but his incompetence was legendary. He’s the guy who signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.
By letting settlers "decide" whether to allow slavery in new territories (popular sovereignty), he turned Kansas into a literal battlefield. It was called "Bleeding Kansas" for a reason. Pierce was easily manipulated by pro-slavery politicians and ended up alienating his own party so badly they wouldn't even re-nominate him. He left office a broken man, and his failure made the Civil War almost inevitable.
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4. Warren G. Harding (1921–1923)
Harding is a different kind of "worst." He wasn't necessarily a bad guy, just a guy who was way out of his depth. He famously told a friend, "I am not fit for this office and should never have been here."
He wasn't lying.
Harding filled his cabinet with his buddies, known as the "Ohio Gang," who used their positions to get rich. The Teapot Dome scandal—where his Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, took bribes to lease Navy oil reserves—was the biggest government scandal until Watergate. Harding died in office before the full extent of the rot was revealed, but his name remains synonymous with "crony capitalism."
5. Donald Trump (2017–2021)
This is where the rankings get messy because it's so recent. In the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, Donald Trump was ranked last by a panel of social science experts.
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The reasoning usually centers on "norm-breaking." Historians cite the events of January 6th, the two impeachments, and the challenges to the peaceful transfer of power as unique threats to the democratic process. While his supporters point to economic numbers or judicial appointments, academics tend to weigh "adherence to institutional stability" very heavily. Whether he stays in the bottom five in fifty years is the big question. History has a funny way of shifting—just look at Ulysses S. Grant, who used to be ranked near the bottom but is now seen as a civil rights hero.
What Actually Makes a President "The Worst"?
It’s not just about passing bad laws. Historians generally look at four things:
- Leadership Failures: Can they hold their party or the country together during a crisis?
- Corruption: Is the White House a revolving door for bribes?
- Constitutional Integrity: Do they respect the boundaries of the three branches?
- Moral Clarity: Did they stand on the right side of human rights when it mattered?
Guys like Buchanan and Johnson fail all four. They had the power to change the trajectory of the country and chose the path of least resistance or active harm.
How to Judge These Figures Yourself
If you’re looking to dive deeper into who are the 5 worst presidents in us history, don't just take a list at face value. Check the sources.
- Read the Siena College Research Institute (SCRI) polls. They’ve been doing this since 1982 and break things down by "Intelligence," "Luck," and "Integrity."
- Look at the C-SPAN Presidential Historian Survey. It’s published every time there’s a change in the White House.
- Consider the "Time Lag." It takes about 20–30 years for the "dust to settle" on a presidency. Harry Truman left office with some of the lowest approval ratings ever, but today he’s consistently in the top ten because of the Marshall Plan and his handling of the Cold War.
Ultimately, the "worst" presidents are usually those who lacked the vision to see a crisis coming—or worse, saw it coming and did nothing.
To get a better handle on how these rankings change, your next step should be to look up the rise of Ulysses S. Grant in historical rankings. It’s a perfect case study in how new evidence and shifting social values can turn a "failure" into a "near-great" leader decades after they’re gone.