A Proper President List

President Trump trolled Democrats by putting himself at the top of a list of the greatest presidents (and dissing Obama). Here’s my own, more serious list.

Arthur Schaper | August 31, 2026

Last week, President Trump trolled the media and leftists by repurposing a list of the Best and Worst Presidents, by putting himself at the top:

Pundits overreacted, called the list stupid, and pointed out that he left out some of the presidents.

It was a joke, people. Take it easy! Besides, Trump has a right to punch back at the relentlessly negative press against him by putting himself on top.

Of course, how any of us rate the presidents tells a lot about ourselves and our times, and our ratings reveal the prevailing political attitudes of these times for posterity, too.

Of the 45 U.S. presidents (Cleveland and Trump served two non-consecutive terms), whom would I feature in the Top Five? The Bottom Five?

For added fun, which presidents are underrated?

Let’s start with the Bottom Five: get the worst of it out of the way.

Most historians and pundits (including myself) place 15th President James Buchanan on the worst list. Buchanan was the epitome of an office seeker. One could joke that he was born running for office.

He served as a state representative in the Pennsylvania legislature. He got elected to Congress and the U.S. Senate because of his long involvement in Keystone State politics. He also served as Secretary of State and Ambassador to Great Britain and Russia in two different administrations.

He even forced out an unpopular incumbent Democrat damaged by rising sectional tensions, then defeated the first Republican presidential candidate, John C. “The Pathfinder” Fremont.

Yet, for all his experience, Buchanan failed to resolve sectional and slavery tensions in the United States. In fact, he attempted to force the budding state of Kansas—and the country—to accept the fraudulent pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, and he intervened in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, which upheld the right to slavery and........

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