U.S. President Donald Trump posted another ranking chart of American presidents on Truth Social on Sept. 7, placing himself alone in the top tier labeled “The Greatest.” It was the third version he had shared since Aug. 27, and none of the three posts included any written explanation.
According to the report, the post went live on the morning of Sept. 7 in the United States, or 10:46 p.m. Taipei time that same day. In the third version, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson were placed in the second tier, “Great.”
The chart was divided into six levels and listed 43 presidents in total: 1 in “The Greatest,” 5 in “Great,” 7 in “Near Great,” 15 in “Average,” 9 in “Below Average,” and 6 in “Failures.” Of the 45 U.S. presidents overall, only William Henry Harrison and James Garfield were left out. Harrison died one month after taking office, and Garfield was assassinated after serving for half a year.
Biden, Obama and George W. Bush placed in the bottom tier
The lowest tier, labeled “Failures,” included Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Warren Harding, Jimmy Carter, and Herbert Hoover. The report noted that Biden, Obama, and George W. Bush — the three living former presidents referenced there — were all placed in that category. Bill Clinton was kept in “Average,” making him the only modern Democratic president left in that middle grouping.
Two minutes before posting the ranking chart, Trump shared another meme showing Obama looking into a mirror, with Trump appearing in the reflection. The text on that image read: “Mirror mirror, who is the greatest president.”
Three revisions in 12 days
The report said Trump has revised the chart three times in 12 days. The first version, posted on Aug. 27, listed only 34 presidents. Its tier labels and names closely followed a 1948 survey commissioned by LIFE magazine and conducted by Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr. with 55 scholars.
In that 1948 survey, Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jefferson, and Jackson were ranked as “Great.” Theodore Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, John Adams, and James Polk were placed in “Near Great.” Only Grant and Harding appeared in the “Failures” category.
Trump’s first version added himself at the top, moved Clinton into “Average,” and placed Biden, Obama, and Carter in “Failures,” while leaving most of the rest unchanged. Because the 1948 survey only evaluated presidents up to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman was not included at the time. As a result, the first Trump version also omitted postwar presidents such as Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and both Bush presidents. The report said Reagan’s absence, in particular, was flagged by multiple U.S. media outlets because he is one of the Republican presidents most often used as a comparison point.
BlockTempo said the second version, posted on Sept. 6, added Reagan, Eisenhower, and other postwar presidents. The third version, posted on Sept. 7, mainly raised Grant to “Near Great” and moved Wilson down to “Average.” Across the three versions, Grant rose three tiers from “Failures,” while Wilson fell two tiers from “Great,” according to the report.
The chart traced back to a 1948 scholar survey
The underlying structure of Trump’s chart came from a 1948 presidential ranking published through a LIFE magazine commission to Arthur Schlesinger Sr. That survey involved 55 scholars. The report said Trump’s three versions over the past two weeks all retained a clear link to that historical template, while adding Trump himself and changing the placements of several presidents.
Academic rankings tell a very different story
The gap between Trump’s Truth Social chart and academic opinion was wide in the report’s comparison. In the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project, conducted by scholars in the American Political Science Association’s presidents and executive politics section, Lincoln ranked first, Franklin D. Roosevelt second, and Washington third. Trump ranked last among 45 presidents.
In that same 2024 survey, Obama — whom Trump placed in “Failures” — ranked seventh, and Biden ranked 14th. Wilson, who was moved down in Trump’s chart, ranked 15th, while Grant ranked 17th.
A separate 2021 survey by C-SPAN historians placed Trump 41st out of 44 presidents.
Republican voters were closer to Trump’s own view
The report also cited a CNN poll conducted by SSRS in May, which found that 53% of Republican voters picked Trump as the Republican president they admired most. Reagan received 18%, and Lincoln received 8%. CNN aired the result on Aug. 26, and Trump posted the first version of his chart the next day.
White House website descriptions were also changed
Beyond the Truth Social chart, the report said biographies of former presidents on the White House website had also been rewritten. Obama was described there as “one of the most divisive political figures in American history,” while Biden was called “the worst president in American history.” As of publication, the White House had not explained why the chart had been revised three times.
How the third version was structured
According to the report, the Sept. 7 version had six levels:
- The Greatest: Trump alone
- Great: Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jefferson, Jackson
- Near Great: 7 presidents
- Average: 15 presidents
- Below Average: 9 presidents
- Failures: Biden, Obama, George W. Bush, Harding, Carter, Hoover
The timeline in the report showed three versions appearing on Aug. 27, Sept. 6, and Sept. 7. The direct changes in the latest edit centered on Grant and Wilson.