U.S. President Donald Trump has positioned himself on the highest ranking of American presidents, setting himself in the category which is above historical figures such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
On Truth Social on Friday, Trump posted the ranking while dividing 34 presidents into six groups: “The Greatest,” “Great,” “Near Great,” “Average,” “Below Average” and “Failures.”
He was the only president listed in the highest category, “The Greatest.”
Washington, America’s first president, and Thomas Jefferson were placed in the “Great” group alongside Lincoln, who guided the United States through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Trump gave some of his political opponents a far less favorable assessment. Former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama were placed in the “Failures” category, alongside former President Jimmy Carter.
The ranking attracted widespread mockery online, particularly because much of the chart appears to have been based on a presidential ranking published decades earlier.
Mike Rothschild, a researcher and writer known for his work on conspiracy theories, noted that the original ranking appeared in Life magazine in 1948. It was compiled from a survey involving more than 50 historians and other experts.
The age of the original survey explains why several well-known presidents are missing from Trump’s version. Leaders who served after 1948, including John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, were not included.
Trump’s version made several notable changes to the original. Most significantly, he created a new category above “Great” and placed himself in it. He also added Biden, Obama and Carter to the lowest-ranked group.
Rothschild shared the original and Trump’s version side by side on X, formerly known as Twitter, while poking fun at the president’s decision to share the ranking.
The Daily Beast also criticized the list, pointing out the irony of Trump placing figures such as Lincoln in the “Great” category while reserving the highest designation exclusively for himself.
The ranking has since generated considerable discussion over Trump’s assessment of his own presidency and his place among the country’s historical leaders.
The original report was published by the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times. It was translated using generative AI and subsequently edited by The Korea Times.
