Will Donald Trump become one of the worst Presidents in U.S. history?

[Person Man]

It's too soon to tell if he will be Harding bad (just really corrupt but nothing bad actually happens for a while), Bush/Hoover/Carter bad (where the wheels just start to come off), or Polk/vanBuren/Arthur bad (just didn't do anything)...but he will definitely be in the worst 10.

[Person Man]

Maybe, though it's if he's comparable to anyone, it's probably Tyler, who spent his whole Administration despised by big chunks of the population and the government and just throwing temper tantrums and bombshells from the White House (right down to signing the annexation of Texas in his lame duck period just to throw the mess onto his successor).

I don't think he's worse than Tyler or Pierce or some of the other luminaries on our bottom-tier list, and so far he hasn't done anything nearly as disastrous as Bush 43 launching an idiotic and catastrophic invasion of Iraq, but give him time, he's only barely 1/5th through his term.

The comparison to Tyler is also useful in that he's leading a party that doesn't agree on much of anything other than dislike of the other party (either the Jacksonian Democrats or the Obama Democrats).

I would say at this point, he is at their level. Especially Tyler. Someone that a struggling party picked to win an election, but doesn't tow the line and either ends up with very few policy achievements or very unpopular ones. I think this tax reform period will seal the deal on how Trump goes down in history. If it passes and rebuilds his capital to the point he actually starts making policy and perhaps even gets reelected, it will give enough rope for him to hang himself. On the other hand, if not, he will just be seen by 2050 or sooner as just a freak show.

[Person Man]

Trump is incompetent and personally unsuited for the office, but so far at least he hasn’t caused any disasters. He will likely get at least a few good things done over the next three years, so I see him more as a Jimmy Carter type, one who was a failed president but not a bottom of the list president like Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, or George W Bush.

Right now, he is just a freak show and if he doesn't pass anything, that is how he will remain. Especially if he loses the next set of elections.

If he manages to stick around and consolidate power, down ballot eventually he will make very bad decisions because Republicans would then be emboldened by they fact that they are "locked in" or at the very least, the bubble we are currently experiencing will burst and he will be seen the way Hoover or Bush were seen. He and his party will be blamed because it will be seen as years of unaccountable and bad government finally taking its toll.

This will be especially bad if he is in power long enough and there are very polarizing "Golden Grail" victories. I can see a court case at least allowing for states to make it impossible to perform legal abortions in their states (or make them outright illegal) being Trump's "Obamacare" or "Iraq" if Kennedy retires sooner rather than later. What kind of legacy does that set up?


So yeah, he either loses quickly, or at least gets reduced to a figure head the way all modern presidents eventually were or he keeps winning and is able to successful ram down very conservative policies that turn out to cause a large war, severe financial meltdown, or somehow casting law and government into so much disrepute that society just goes to sh**t and the former things end up happening anyways.