Would you prefer Trump to one of history's worst presidents?

Politics & Elections
1

It’s January 20, 2025. Donald Trump has won the presidential election and is about to be inaugurated. A genie appears and offers you the choice of substituting Trump with one of the seven worst presidents in American history, who will then serve out the entire four-year term. Whom do you select, and why?

  • James Buchanan
  • Andrew Johnson
  • Franklin Pierce
  • Warren G. Harding
  • John Tyler
  • William H. Harrison
  • Millard Fillmore
  • No thanks—I decline the genie’s offer and allow Trump to be inaugurated.
0 voters
2

No ‘Any/all of the above.’?

3

No, you have to pick one and one only.

4

Your poll strikes me more of a Hobson’s choice deal (if I’m using the term correctly). Any one of them is far better than the loud-mouthed traitor.

5

I’ll go with Pierce. By most accounts he was a genuinely nice guy.

mmm

6

Not Harding. We need someone who eschews corruption, not someone who snuggles up in it.

Not Tyler. We don’t need a member of the Confederacy.

Preferably not Johnson. We don’t need someone who’s going to shy away from prosecuting those who harm our people.

Any of the others would, I think, be better than Trump.

7

So far William Henry Harrison is leading with almost half the votes. In case people are picking him in hopes that he’ll die a month into the presidency, remember that the genie’s terms are that the president serves the full term. So I’m curious what else might be drawing voters to Harrison… does anyone think he would actually make a good 21st-century president?

8

Woah, woah, woah–that’s not what the genie offered!

The genie saw a bully about to force-feed me a dog turd, and offered to swap it out for a soy hotdog, a gas station egg salad sandwich, or a McDonalds hamburger that had been sitting under the heat lamp for an hour. I’m not going for fine dining, I’m just trying to avoid food poisoning.

9

Probably the blank slate on the other 98% of his presidency versus the known vices of the rest

10

I checked the first name on the list because, quite frankly, any of them would be light years better than a liar, a criminal, and a traitor.

11

President Incitatus does have a ring to it.

12

OK, I’m disoriented. Lists of the worst presidents that include Trump put him in the #1, 2, or 3 position, IIRC. You’re citing a list that for some reason largely excludes him. Trump IS one of history’s worst president, and would rank worse than most of your alternatives.

Am I missing something?

13

Trump? Lousy President? Why choose?

14

The poll already includes him as an option, so if you want to swap Trump with Trump, be my guest.

15

Ah, so voters here don’t tend to subscribe to the “better the devil you know than the one you don’t” philosophy.

16

Or are just overcome with Monday Morning Optimism

17

Presidents don’t need to be “nice.” What we hope they are is one who will be good for the country and its citizens.

18

That’s just how gambling works. No one bets on the dice that have already been rolled.

19

The OP is fundamentally flawed. Trump is in a class by himself when “worst presidents” are considered, so by definition the group in the poll are preferable to him.

20

I already figured that most people would swap in a past president. The thread title is perhaps somewhat misleading; what I’m really interested in is not whether people would swap, but whom they would swap in.