Do you believe Trump is the worst President of all time?
Here are my reasons on why I believe he is the worst president of all time:
Insider trading:
At least two members of Trump’s cabinet sold substantial stock holdings just before his April 2025 “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, which triggered a $2.4 trillion market sell-off. Attorney General Pam Bondi sold between $1.25 million and $5.5 million in Trump Media shares the same day the tariffs were announced — before markets crashed. Rep. Jamie Raskin formally requested a DOJ Inspector General investigation, writing the conduct “bears all the hallmarks of insider trading.” Senators Warren, Schumer, and others called on the SEC to investigate whether Trump himself engaged in insider trading or market manipulation after he posted “GREAT TIME TO BUY” on social media hours before announcing a tariff pause that sent stocks surging
Gaza/Israel:
Despite famine conditions in Gaza and rising civilian casualties, and while major U.S. allies like Germany and the UK suspended arms exports to Israel. Trump maintained what the Chicago Council on Global Affairs characterized as “unconditional backing” for Israel throughout the conflict. 48 members of Congress wrote to Trump noting Israel violated its ceasefire agreement over 700 times in under three months, including killing two brothers aged 8 and 10 in a drone strike, while aid delivery fell far below the required 600 trucks per day.
Epstein files:
Trump promised voters he would release the Epstein files, but after taking office resisted doing so for months. When the DOJ finally released a memo in July 2025, it contradicted AG Bondi’s earlier statement that a “client list” existed, drawing outrage from Trump’s own base. The released files revealed Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet at least eight times between 1993 and 1996, including flights where Ghislaine Maxwell was also a passenger. A 2020 federal prosecutor email noted Trump “traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously reported.” Trump has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing, but Congress ultimately had to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act by a 427–1 vote to force the release, which the DOJ then violated by missing its legal deadline and releasing documents with hundreds of fully blacked-out pages
Inflation:
Trump’s tariffs represent the largest U.S. tax increase as a percentage of GDP since 1993, amounting to an average tax increase of $1,500 per household in 2026. The OECD projected U.S. GDP growth would fall from 2.8% in 2024 to just 1.6% in 2025 and 1.5% in 2026 due to “rising trade costs” from the tariffs. Analysis by economist Ernie Tedeschi found Trump’s agenda has produced stagflation, slower growth and faster inflation simultaneously, with tariffs alone responsible for nearly a full percentage point of additional inflation in 2025.
Gas prices:
Trump repeatedly promised to cut gas prices below $2 per gallon. Prices dropped from $3.20 to $3.02 per gallon during his first year, a 6% decrease, nowhere near his pledge, while electricity prices rose 6.7% and home gas bills climbed 5.2%. Then the Iran war erased even those modest gains: between February 27 and mid-May 2026, WTI crude oil prices surged 53.2%, with gasoline and diesel prices up roughly 51.5% and 49.8% respectively. By April 2026, the national average gas price was $4.24 per gallon, up from $3.30 a year earlier, with gas exceeding $5 per gallon in seven states
Iran war:
In late February 2026, Trump launched a large-scale military campaign against Iran and called for regime change, acts of war undertaken without congressional authorization, in violation of the Constitution’s assignment of war powers to Congress. The Trump administration offered shifting justifications, including claims of a preemptive strike against a possible Iranian attack, which other officials said wasn’t real, and joining an Israeli strike that was going to happen “with or without the United States.” Sen. Adam Schiff stated: “This war was illegal from the start, there was no attack on the United States, there was no imminent threat of attack. Even under the War Powers Act, the president doesn’t get 60 days to make war without congressional approval in the absence of any imminent threat.” A former Republican National Committee chairman and U.S. Army JAG officer wrote that Trump “incompetently and smugly led the world into economic disaster and shown indifference to the loss of innocent lives,” noting U.S. forces launched 55 military airstrikes on vessels in international waters, killing at least 174 civilians without provocation and without congressional oversight.
Scholarly Rankings:
The most direct evidence comes from expert surveys. The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, sent to over 525 social science experts in presidential politics and peer-reviewed scholars , yielded 154 responses and determined Trump was the worst president in U.S. history, even accounting for participants’ political views. Trump scored just 10.92 out of 100, where 0 = failure and 100 = great. For comparison, James Buchanan, long considered the gold standard of bad presidents scored 16.71, and Abraham Lincoln topped the list at 93.8
Immigration and due process:
deportations of individuals to third countries without hearings, including cases where courts ordered returns and the administration defied those rulings.
Judiciary and Press attacks:
unprecedented attacks on judges by name, attempts to sanction law firms, and pulling security clearances from political opponents.
National Debt:
the “One Big Beautiful Bill” projected to add trillions to the deficit while cutting Medicaid and food assistance for lower-income households.
Federal workforce:
mass firing of federal employees, gutting of agencies like USAID, CDC, and the Department of Education, with courts ruling several cuts illegal.
Data leaks:
Senior cabinet officials including the Defense Secretary shared live military strike details for the Yemen Houthi attack in an unsecured group chat that accidentally included a journalist.
REFERENCES:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/historians-voted-trump-worst-president-ever/
https://www.axios.com/2024/02/19/presidents-survey-trump-ranks-last-biden-14th
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/02/19/presidential-greatness-survey-2024-trump-biden/9601708357197/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/30/opinions/c-span-historian-survey-donald-trump-ranking-balcerski
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/24/text
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-trumps-full-response-to-house-democrats-arguments-for-impeachment
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/house-democrats-file-impeachment-charge-accusing-trump-of-incitement-of-insurrection/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/25/yemen-war-plans-what-did-trump-aides-leak-to-the-atlantic-in-signal-chat
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-officials-accidentally-shared-yemen-war-plans-group/story?id=120106043
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-denies-war-plans-classified-information-discussed/story?id=120126088
https://readsludge.com/2025/05/19/trump-cabinet-members-sold-millions-in-stock-before-tariff-crash/
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https://www.schiff.senate.gov/?p=9694
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https://theintercept.com/2025/12/24/gaza-israel-palestine-ceasefire/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epstein_files
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epstein_Files_Transparency_Act
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https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administrations-tariffs-and-iran-war-will-cause-americans-to-face-higher-prices-this-summer/
https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/studies-show-trump-policies-are-causing-gas-prices-to-surge-and-fueling-higher-costs-on-consumers_businesses
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/may/20/scott-bessent/gasoline-prices-fallen-trump-crude-oil/
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https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5406208/trump-administration-defends-flight-of-migrants-to-third-countries
https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-bars-trump-administration-from-removing-people-to-third-countries-without-due-process/
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/court-finds-trump-administrations-third-country-removal-policy-is-unlawful-vacates-the-policy/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-judge-murphy-trump-third-country-deportations-unlawful-rcna260684
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-ice-asylum-cases-deportations/
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/justice-department-drop-defense-trump-executive-orders-law-firms/
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https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/trumps-targeting-of-law-firms-over-security-questioned-by-judges
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5878383-federal-appeals-court-trump-law/
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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/25/yemen-war-plans-what-did-trump-aides-leak-to-the-atlantic-in-signal-chat
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-officials-accidentally-shared-yemen-war-plans-group/story?id=120106043
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-denies-war-plans-classified-information-discussed/story?id=120126088
