Donald Trump posted a Trump presidential ranking on Truth Social on Thursday and put himself alone in a category labeled “The Greatest.” His chart placed Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt below him, while using six categories to sort U.S. presidents.
The ranking gives Trump his own top tier and moves Lincoln and Washington into the next-highest group, a sharper break from historical and historian-based lists than the chart’s other entries. He also placed Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter among the “Failures.”
Trump in Trump
Trump’s chart largely follows the structure of Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr.’s earlier ranking of presidents, but it adds one change no previous survey could include: Trump in Trump, alone at the top. Schlesinger’s original survey, compiled from 55 historians and published by LIFE in November 1948, named six “great” presidents.
That original list included Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Trump’s version keeps those names near the top, though it moves Andrew Jackson into the “Great” category and leaves Franklin D. Roosevelt below the top category rather than at the very top.
2024 Presidential Greatness Project survey
The comparison becomes sharper beside the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project survey, which ranked Abraham Lincoln first, followed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson. Trump’s chart puts himself above Lincoln and Washington, the two presidents that survey respondents placed at the front of the field.
His list also omits Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush entirely. William McKinley appears, but only in the “Average” category.
Truth Social
The post leaves one core issue unanswered: what criteria Trump used to put himself alone in “The Greatest” category. The chart suggests a personal ranking rather than a historian’s survey, and it is the only explanation visible in the post itself.
