In its sixth presidential ranking since 1982, 157 scholars surveyed by the institute ranked Trump the third worst president of all time after Andrew Johnson (who was impeached) and James Buchanan (whose presidency was followed by the Civil War).
The Siena survey, released Thursday, is conducted after each new president has had a full year in office. It asks presidential scholars, historians and political scientists to rank the presidents according to 20 different categories.
Because the survey is conducted after only one year in office, the sitting president normally comes in somewhere toward the middle of the pack as "scholars begin to observe their accomplishments, assess their abilities and study their attributes," said Don Levy, the institute's director, in a press release. "This year, Donald Trump enters the survey at 42nd, and he is only ranked outside of the bottom five in two of the twenty categories that scholars use to assess the presidents, 'luck' and 'willingness to take risks,'" Levy said.
For the first time in the survey's history, George Washington was ranked the greatest president, unseating Franklin Roosevelt, who had topped every previous ranking. Overall, the top five has remained unchanged with Washington, Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson.
Barack Obama dropped two spots to the 17th greatest president, while George W. Bush climbed six spots to 33rd. Bill Clinton went from 13th to 15th and Ronald Reagan climbed from 18th to 13th place.
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