How many Americans rate Trump as the ‘worst’ vs ‘best’ president in US history?

As Americans return to work and school after the long President’s Day weekend, a new Yahoo/YouGov poll finds that 40% of them consider Donald Trump to be “the worst president in American history.”

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

Only a third of Americans say Trump is the best president in American history (12%) or better than average (21%). Another 9% believe Trump is “somewhere in the middle.”

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

Historians often use President’s Day as an occasion to rank the Commander 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 with 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 sweeping changes in his first year in office. So now, two Februarys later, how are ordinary Americans judging Trump’s second term in relation to previous presidents?

Not very positive. Trump’s job approval rating (38%) is currently as low as it’s ever been; His disapproval rating (58%) is higher than ever. That puts Trump “underwater” by a full 20 points. By 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 fallen for Trump. Before Trump took office, more independents said they expected him to change America for the better (41%) than 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, more Americans now say for the first time that Trump is making America worse (52%) than better (34%) — and that his second term has been worse than they thought (51%) rather than better (25%).

Americans also see Trump as failing to meet the performance standards set by his immediate Democratic predecessors.

Despite the fact that Trump recently replaced Biden’s White House portrait with a photo of an autopen — and described Biden as “the worst president in American history” in a plaque below 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. Only 33% said Trump was doing well.

Trump also drew less favorable comparisons to former President Barack Obama — “one of the most divisive political figures in American history,” according to his new White House plaque. Fully 55% of Americans think Trump is doing worse than Obama. Only 37% think Trump is doing well. Among independents, those numbers are 57% and 16%, respectively.

The president faces a widening gap in opinion between Americans who think he’s doing a good job and Americans who think he’s doing a bad job. 49 percent now “strongly” disapprove of Trump’s job performance; Less than half (22%) strongly approve.

The gap between Americans who consider Trump the worst president in American history and those who consider him the best remains the same.

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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,704 US adults interviewed online from February 9 to 12, 2026. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, education, 2024 electoral vote and presidential vote, party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weight goals come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted around 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 American adults. The margin of error is about 3%.