There have been a lot of presidents throughout American history. Forty-six to be exact and only a handful have been above average. I interviewed five teachers here at the high school on the best and worst U.S Presidents.  They all will be anonymous as they will like to not be attacked for having an opinion. The average for the best was FDR and Abe Lincoln. The average for worst was Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump, and Richard Nixon. All teachers had different views and opinions. I personally will rank my 5 least favorite presidents who I think is the worst of the worst. Many factors contributed to my rankings,  including how influential they were for the country and what they did, how good of a person they were, what they got us through, and if I agree with their political views or think their ideas are good or not. So with all that being said, here we go with the list. The list is a ranking, therefore, 1 is the worst. Got it? Good. 

 Top 5 Worst Presidents

5. Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover was the 31st U.S. President from 1929 to 1933 and was elected on the eve of the greatest U.S.financial disaster ever, known as the Great Depression. Sure, it wasn’t his fault, but his incompetence towards handling this depression and disaster is too strong to go unnoticed. He thought it would magically disappear and that the American citizens would (with absolutely no help from the government) get over this horrible disaster by themselves. Hoover was viewed as a mean dude who cares little about those affected and about the poor. Makeshift homeless towns were called Hoovervilles at the time If that’s any indication of his popularity. He then signed a tariff for fueling an international trade war…. During a depression…… no words. He did try to do work projects like building the hoover dam but he was too far gone. Now people forget about him because of who came after him, which was FDR, and what FDR did which was fix WW2 and the Depression which was only the tip of the iceberg. But anyway, back to Hoover. I honestly feel Hoover was a nice guy but his legacy has been taken over and forever shattered by the Depression. In his defense, any president, from Kennedy to Regan would be horrible trying to lead the country through the Depression but he was a leader and he did not do his job well at all no matter the excuses. 

4. Andrew Jackson 

Andrew Jackson was the 7th US president from 1829 to 1837Before Jackson was the 7th president he was a war hero and general fighting in many wars and many of those wars he won. He was a man who rushed to violence and was easily aggravated. Now, this may have worked to be a good military leader, but not a political leader. As a President, he fed off his slogan of the ¨common men come first¨. He fought for the common man as he too was a common man. In his eyes, however, the¨Common Man¨ was the rich and powerful. I thought of many other Presidents I could put on this list but what made me choose him was how he treated non-white men. Jackson is even worse than his horrifyingly brutal record with regard to Native Americans. The Indian removal act was not just a crime against humanity, it was a crime against humanity intended to carve out space for another crime against humanity. By clearing the Cherokee from the American South, Jackson hoped to open up more land for slave plantations. He owned hundreds of slaves, and in 1835 worked with his postmaster general to censor anti-slavery mailings from northern abolitionists. He forced thousands of Native Americans out of THEIR land in his evil Indian Removal act which made them be moved and have them find new land to call home – known as the trail of tears. He also would frequently duel people as President. Safe to say Andrew Jackson was a blood-thirsty unhinged nutcase.  

3. James Buchanan 

James Buchanan was the 15th U.S. president from 1857-1861. A man who did little to nothing in his four long, dreadful, horrible, ugly years as commander in chief. The claim to fame Buchanan has and will forever hold is that he is before Lincoln, who is viewed as one of the best presidents of all time, as well as being the president right before the Civil War and helped expand the war to get worse. He did nothing to stop the expansion of slavery, and yes he thought it was evil but he did not have the heart or grit to challenge it. Even before he became president, he supported the various compromises that made it possible for slavery to spread into the western territories acquired by the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican War. The funny thing is that James was born in PA but sympathized with southern values and the southern way of life including slavery. He is known as a dough face meaning he is from the north but is a southerner at heart. I would say something good about this man but there is literally nothing I can or will say. He deserves nothing good being spoken about him. Fun fact as well he was a lifelong bachelor meaning he never got married and the only president to not have a wife as president. He was so bad, just ask anybody. Wait you cannot because no one even knows who this man is- and for good reason. 

2. Donald Trump

Donald Trump was the 45th U.S President and most recent President as he served from 2017 to 2021. Donald is the only living president on this list- and where do I even start. Now this is gonna make a lot of people upset and I fully expect it but this is my opinion. Just when you thought this list can not possibly get any worse it did. He was the only President to get impeached TWICE. Yes, he did get off on both but that’s because he had a good little puppet show of republican senators like Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham. If the Dems had control then he would have been impeached. Meaning history would have no President to have been impeached twice. But here we are. He also promised a wall to go on the border of Mexico to keep those ¨rapists¨ out. Add on the other promises that were broken…… we all are still waiting for that wall by the way. His leadership through the Covid 19 pandemic was exceptionally horrid as he refused to wear masks, did not believe in the science of it, thought it was fake, did not tell Americans to take the shot until many were dead, and thought he knew better than his own scientists and doctors. Donnie´s attacks on institutions, the press, the judiciary, the intelligence community, and just everything culminated in his war on voting and fighting democracy. He would say anything he did not believe in was fake and anyone he did not like was out to get him. The January sixth riot and mayhem at the Capitol was a direct result and rightly led to an unimaginable history-altering second presidential impeachment. Trump has left a broken, split country and a reputation that will be felt and seen for years to come. 

1. Andrew Johnson 

          Finally, we meet the worst U.S President in the history of America. He is many historians’ worst president and I could never agree more. Think of Trump but 10 times worse as well as being Trump in an era when Trump’s actions were unnoticed and ¨ok¨. Johnson is known for being the Vice President of Abe Lincoln (who is regarded as one of the best Presidents). Johnson took over in 1865 when President Lincoln was assassinated and ran the country till 1869. Thankfully, he only ran the country for one term. He was also never elected to be in the prime position of President. What makes this man so horrible you ask? Well, he routinely called black people inferior. He bluntly and ignorantly stated that no matter how much progress they made or will make, they must remain the ¨disgraced race¨. He openly called critics of him disloyal, even going as far as calling them treasonous. He liberally threw insults to whoever he would like to during public speeches. He rudely ignored answers he didn’t like. He regularly put other people into positions they didn’t want to be in, then blamed them when things went off the rails. His own bodyguard later called him “destined to conflict,” and a man who “found it impossible to conciliate.” He was also drunk at his 1865 inauguration when the country was grieving the fallen President. He also spit on everything Lincoln tried to accomplish like Reconstruction and the 14th amendment. He was a nice cozy supporter of slavery and was a racist spineless punk who was too scared to challenge slavery and take the blame for anything. The big thing that makes him stand out, is that he was the first President to be impeached. He was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act. The alleged violation stemmed from Johnson’s decision to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a prominent and Radical Republican leftover from the Lincoln administration. Johnson was a nasty, vindictive, and racist man. The worst President coming after one of the best. How?