page_title: Historical rankings of presidents of the United States
section_title: Low in rankings
hierarchical_section_title: Historical rankings of presidents of the United States / General Findings / Low in rankings
caption_attribution_description: Senator (later US President) Warren G. Harding, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front.
context_page_description: Historians are surveyed and asked to give Presidents of the United States number ratings on their overall performance or on different aspects of their leadership.
  Several different factors are considered in deciding what makes one a good or bad president. These include their character, their vision for the country, their relations with congress, their relations with foreign leaders, how they managed the economy, how they managed the military, and their overall political skill.
  To make sure the rankings are fair, many surveys equally balance the opinions of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans.
  It is sometimes difficult to accurately rank a president because all of the presidents faced completely different challenges and lived in different times.
  Historical opinions of U.S. presidents often change over time. For example, Harry Truman had very low approval ratings right after he left office, but many historians now consider him among the greatest presidents.
context_section_description: Chester Arthur, William Howard Taft, Benjamin Harrison, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Rutherford B. Hayes, Martin Van Buren, and Richard Nixon are considered to be below average.
  John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan are often considered to be among the worst because they failed to prevent the growth of the slavery which resulted in the Civil War.  
  Andrew Johnson is often ranked among the worst because he was against the Reconstruction.
  Warren G. Harding is often considered to be the worst because he hired corrupt friends to become government officials.
caption: Warren Harding is rated as one of the worst Presidents
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