“In relation to this poll, it would be surprising if Trump were rehabilitated in a meaningful way,” Levy said. “If the first paragraph of a discussion starts with being charged twice, and the second sentence is about the coronavirus and the third is about bias, that will be very difficult to overcome.”
Sean Wilentz, a professor of American history at Princeton University, said Mr Trump was undoubtedly the worst president in history.
“He belongs to a completely different category in terms of the damage he has done to the republic,” said Wilentz, citing the radicalization of the Republican Party, the inept response to the pandemic and what he is “the brazen, almost psychedelic Mendacity of “called the man.”
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose recent book Leadership: In Turbulent Times examines how four presidents have faced difficult moments in history, said that it usually takes a generation to evaluate a leader. To the extent that a president’s legacy is determined by his ability to get into crisis, Mr Trump will be remembered for his failure: how badly he handled Covid-19 and how shamefully he behaved after the election Has.
“History will view President Trump with great disgrace for the crisis he has created,” she said.
For his part, Mr Rauchway said he believed Mr Trump would “be in the bottom five” of the president’s rankings, but that the bottom spot itself was uncertain. “I think he has tough competition” in Andrew Johnson, whom Mr. Rauchway personally considers the worst president of them all.
“If I had to predict where the historiography would lead, people would have to realize that Trumpism – nativism and white supremacy – has deep roots in American history,” Rauchway said. “But Trump himself has brought it to a new and vicious purpose.”
