How many Americans rank Trump as the ‘worst’ vs. ‘best’ president in U.S. history?

As Americans head back to work and school after the long Presidents Day weekend, a new Yahoo/YouGov poll finds that 40% of Americans now view Donald Trump as the “worst president in US history.”

Another 12% think Trump is “worse than average”; This means that a majority of Americans overall (about 53%) now rate Trump as one of the least successful presidents to hold office.

Only a third of Americans think Trump is the best president in U.S. history (12%) or above average (21%). 9 percent believe that Trump is “somewhere in the middle.”

The survey of 1,704 U.S. adults was conducted just before President’s Day, which roughly coincides with George Washington’s birthday and honors the first U.S. president and all those who served after him.

Historians often use Presidents’ Day as an opportunity to elevate commanders to the rank of chief; The last major count was: Published February 2024 by the Presidential Greatness Project. In this competition, 154 current and new members of the American Political Science Association awarded Abraham Lincoln for finishing first with an average score of 93.87 on a scale of 0 to 100. Trump came in last with an average score of 10.92.

But that was before Trump’s comeback victory the following November and sweeping changes in his first year back in office. So now, two Februarys later, how do ordinary Americans rate Trump’s second term compared to previous presidencies?

Not very positive. Trump’s job approval rating (38%) is now lower than ever; The disapproval rate (58%) is higher than ever. This gives Trump exactly 20 points.”underwater.” By comparison, former President Joe Biden He is about 8 points underwater at this stage of his presidency..

Independents, who tend to decide elections, are especially angry with Trump. Before Trump took office again, more independents said they expected him to change America for the better (41%) than those who said they expected him to change America for the worse (34%). But today, only 23 percent of independents say Trump has changed America for the better, while a clear majority (57%) say he has changed America for the worse.

As a result, a majority of Americans now say for the first time that Trump is making America worse (52%) rather than better (34%), and that his second term is worse than they expected (51%) rather than better (25%).

Americans also think Trump has failed to meet the performance standard set by his Democratic predecessors.

49% of Americans think Trump “did a worse job than Biden,” even though Trump recently replaced a portrait of Biden in the White House with an autopen photo, and a plaque beneath the image describes Biden as “by far the worst President in American history.” Significantly fewer (41%) think Trump is doing a better job than Biden.

Among independents, a majority (53%) now believes Trump is worse off than Biden. Only 33 percent say Trump is better off.

Trump draws an even less favorable comparison with former President Barack Obama, “one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” according to his new plaque at the White House. 55 percent of Americans think Trump did a worse job than Obama. Only 37 percent think Trump is better off. Among independents, these rates are 57% and 16% respectively.

The president also faces a widening gap in opinion intensity between Americans who think he is doing a good job and Americans who think he is doing a bad job. Forty-nine percent now “strongly” disapprove of Trump’s job performance; Less than half (22%) strongly approve.

The gap between Americans who see Trump as the worst president in US history and those who see him as the best is similar.

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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,704 U.S. adults interviewed online between February 9-12, 2026. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential votes, party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets are from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted according to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democrat, 32% Republican). Participants were selected from YouGov’s engagement panel to represent all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3%.