Donald Trump has ranked himself “The Greatest” president in American history in a self-authored list posted to Truth Social.
The president, 78, shared the presidential rankings on his Truth Social platform last Friday, sorting former commanders-in-chief into six tiers despite his own net approval rating sitting at -26 percent according to recent YouGov polling. The categories ranged from “The Greatest” down through “Great,” “Near Great,” “Average,” “Below Average,” and “Failures.”
Trump placed himself alone at the top. “The Greatest” category contained no other names.
He listed Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson as “Great” presidents. Theodore Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, John Adams, and James K. Polk earned “Near Great” status in his estimation.
The “Average” tier was the most crowded, with Trump assigning Bill Clinton, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Madison, Martin Van Buren, William Howard Taft, Chester A. Arthur, William McKinley, Andrew Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Benjamin Harrison to the middle category.
John Tyler, Calvin Coolidge, Millard Fillmore, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, and Franklin Pierce were deemed “Below Average.”
The “Failures” list contained Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, and Jimmy Carter alongside Trump’s two most recent Democratic predecessors. Barack Obama and Joe Biden joined them there, a placement consistent with years of vocal criticism Trump has directed at both men.
Trump has maintained steady attacks on Biden since returning to office. At the White House Easter Egg Roll earlier this year, the president sat with children and offered to sign their drawings. “I could sign autographs for you guys. And then tonight, you could sell them for $25,000 on eBay,” he told them.
He then picked up one child’s drawing and remarked that he would sign it and “pretend it’s mine,” Trump continued with a pointed reference to his predecessor’s signature habits: “You know Biden, he’d use the autopen. He was incapable of signing his name. So they would follow him around with a big machine. He’d take the paper, hand it to his guys, sign it with an autopen, and give it back. That’s not too good, right?”
Earlier this month at the Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa, Trump made another Biden-targeted remark while rescuing a toddler from falling off a stage. He said he acted to stop the child from “being Biden,” referencing public falls by the former president.
In the viral moment that established this running pattern of ridicule, Trump’s Easter comments about Biden’s use of the autopen drew particular attention for their detailed, mocking description of presidential document-signing procedures delivered to a crowd of children.
The presidential rankings post extends Trump’s habit of self-assessment that has characterized both his terms in office, with the “greatest” designation representing his most explicit claim to historical supremacy yet.