Poll: How many Americans rank Trump as the 'worst' vs. 'best' president in U.S. history?

As Americans return to work and school after the long Presidents’ Day weekend, a new Yahoo/YouGov poll has found that 40% of them now consider Donald Trump to be the “worst president in U.S. history.”

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

Only a third of Americans say Trump is either the best president in U.S. history (12%) or better than average (21%). An additional 9% believe Trump “ranks somewhere in the middle.”

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

Historians often use Presidents’ Day as an opportunity to rank commanders in chief; the last major tally was published in February 2024 by the Presidential Greatness Project. In it, 154 current and recent members of the American Political Science Association awarded Abraham Lincoln, the top finisher, an average zero-to-100 score of 93.87. Trump finished last, with an average score of 10.92.

But that was before Trump’s comeback victory the following November — and before the sweeping changes of his first year back in office. So now, two Februaries later, how are ordinary Americans judging Trump’s second term in relation to the presidencies that preceded it?

Not very positively. Trump’s job approval rating (38%) is currently as low as it has ever been; his disapproval rating (58%) is higher than ever. That puts Trump a full 20 points “underwater.” In comparison, former President Joe Biden was about 8 points underwater at this stage of his presidency.

In particular, independents — who tend to decide elections — have soured on Trump. Before Trump took office again, more independents said they expected him to change America for the better (41%) than said they expected him to change America for the worse (34%). But today, only 23% of independents say Trump is changing America for the better, while a clear majority (57%) say he is changing America for the worse.

All told, 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 has turned out to be worse than they expected (51%) instead of better (25%).

Americans also think Trump is failing to meet the standard of performance set by his immediate Democratic predecessors.

Despite the fact that Trump recently replaced a White House portrait of Biden with a photo of an autopen — and described Biden as “by far, the worst President in American History” on the plaque beneath the image — 49% of Americans think Trump is “doing a worse job than Biden.” Significantly fewer (41%) think Trump is doing a better job than Biden.

Among independents, a majority (53%) now believe Trump is doing worse than Biden. Just 33% say Trump is doing better.

Trump compares even less favorably to former President Barack Obama — “one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” according to his new White House plaque. A full 55% of Americans think Trump is doing a worse job than Obama. Only 37% think Trump is doing better. Among independents, those numbers are 57% and 16%, respectively.

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

The gap between Americans who consider Trump the worst president in U.S. history and those who consider him 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 from Feb. 9 to 12, 2026. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3%.