President Donald Trump on September 6 posted an updated ranking of U.S. presidents on Truth Social, placing himself alone in a category labeled 'The Greatest.' The revised list adds several former presidents who were absent from his initial August 27 post, including Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.
Trump’s first ranking, shared on August 27, placed him alone in the top tier above Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson, who were labeled 'Great.' The initial list also included a bottom tier labeled 'Failures,' which contained Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren Harding, and Jimmy Carter. The updated version adds George W. Bush and Herbert Hoover to the 'Failures' category, while Hoover was previously listed as 'Average.' Reagan, a conservative icon, was notably absent from the first ranking but is now placed in the 'Near Great' tier.
The president did not provide an explanation for the changes or the criteria used for the rankings. The revised chart retains Trump in a standalone top tier, with Reagan, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, and the Bushes added to lower categories. The updates follow Trump’s previous posts on Truth Social, including one on Labor Day that featured an image of Obama with the caption 'Mirror mirror on the wall who’s the greatest president of them all.'
The rankings resemble a 1948 presidential ranking by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. for LIFE magazine, though Trump’s list differs in several key ways. For example, Reagan was omitted from the initial post despite his longstanding status as a conservative figure. The revised version also places Kennedy and Nixon in the 'Average' tier, while Ford and George H.W. Bush are listed as 'Below Average.' Lyndon B. Johnson, who was not included in the first chart, is also placed in the 'Below Average' category.
Trump’s rankings have drawn attention for their subjective nature and lack of transparency regarding the methodology behind the categorizations. Critics have noted that the lists do not align with widely accepted historical assessments of presidential performance. Supporters, however, have framed the rankings as an expression of Trump’s confidence in his leadership.