Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is outraged at new historical rankings putting former President Donald Trump dead last among U.S. presidents — and blew up over it on Fox News Monday morning.
The poll, released earlier in the day, is the third such survey conducted as part of the University of Houston's Presidential Greatness Project, which asked a large group of academics and scholars involved in politics to give rank U.S. presidents. It listed Trump as worst of all presidents, and also gave him the title of "most polarizing." Even among respondents who identified as Republicans, Trump placed 41 out of 45.
Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt took the top slots. Sitting President Joe Biden ranked 14th.
"A new ranking, and I'm going to add, in my view, a highly questionable ranking of presidents, is turning heads after Biden came in higher than both Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan," McEnany said. "In his wildest dreams."
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"It may be the foremost example of the disconnect between ivory-tower academia and real people," said McEnany. "Look... where to begin. This is infuriating in so many ways. 154 respondents. They are the ivory tower elites who in no way represent the view of the American people."
Biden does indeed rank negatively in favorability and approval in recent surveys, and more so than most other modern presidents did at this point in their presidency. However, the survey respondents' dim view of Trump is hardly out of line with the public, where polling aggregation still finds him underwater by close to double digits as of mid-February.
Although polls currently show that former President Donald Trump has a slight lead in the 2024 presidential race, The Bulwark's Jonathan Last argued in January that Trump's polls are hitting a "high-water mark" — and are unlikely to improve once the general election campaign begins properly.
Among other things, Last argues that Trump has essentially been gliding to the Republican Party presidential nomination and running against rivals who have been loathe to actually criticize him or his record.
"Trump will arrive at the nomination in a pre-campaign state where he has yet to take a punch," he wrote. "I expect that once there is a real race, with Biden actually hitting Trump where he is softest, and Trump is in everyone’s face, we are likely to see some erosion of Republican support for Trump at the margins. Not a huge decline—but enough to measure. Enough to be dispositive."
