One in 34 Americans – across the full political spectrum – now names a sitting president as the worst American in history. Not a serial killer, not a war criminal, not a figure safely buried in the past. The person currently holding the most powerful office on earth.
YouGov conducted its poll ahead of the 250th anniversary of the United States – a moment when Americans were being asked to step back and take the broadest possible view of their national story. Founding fathers, abolitionists, civil rights leaders, and accused predators were all on the table. And a sitting president landed at the top of the worst list anyway.
The question YouGov put to Americans wasn’t framed around partisan scores or job performance. It asked something bigger: looking back across 250 years of American life, who is the worst person this country has produced? The answer, from more than a third of respondents, was Donald Trump. The poll appeared on both a “greatest” and “worst” Americans list, a sign of how Trump remains one of the most polarizing figures in the country. No previous president in the poll’s history had managed that particular distinction – except one.
How the Poll Was Conducted
YouGov conducted two online surveys, between June 23 and 25 of 1,110 people and June 24 and 27 of 1,118 people, with the sample weighted to be representative of American adults by key demographics. The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately plus or minus 4 percentage points. The methodology followed a three-stage process: first, open-ended questions where Americans named figures in their own words; then AI-assisted analysis of the most common responses; and finally, a structured survey presenting the most frequently mentioned names as options. The list of worst Americans that emerged included convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, and former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden – a mix that spans both political villainy and outright criminal violence.
The Worst American in History: The Numbers
Trump topped the list of the worst Americans in history according to the YouGov poll, with a total of 34 percent of respondents selecting him. That’s more than double the share who chose the second-place finisher. Jeffrey Epstein came in second at 14 percent, followed by Barack Obama at 8 percent, and Jeffrey Dahmer at 8 percent.
The 34 percent total included 64 percent of Democrats, 34 percent of independents, and 4 percent of Republicans. The independent figure is particularly telling. Independents – the voters who tend to decide competitive elections – selected Trump as the worst American at a rate eight times higher than his own party’s members did.
Among Republicans, the candidate most likely to be named the worst American was Barack Obama, at 19 percent, followed by Joe Biden at 17 percent. That result reflects a partisan mirror image: Democrats look at Trump the way Republicans look at Obama, only more so. The share of Democrats calling Trump the worst American (64 percent) is more than three times the share of Republicans calling Obama the worst (19 percent).
The Greatest American: Where the Parties Split
The same poll asked Americans to name the greatest person in the country’s 250-year history, and the results show just how differently the two parties see the national story.
The largest share of respondents named former President Abraham Lincoln as the greatest American, with 18 percent selecting him – a nearly identical figure among both Democrats and Republicans. Lincoln is one of the only figures in the poll where the partisan divide largely disappears, a rare point of shared reverence across the aisle. Former President George Washington was named by 13 percent of respondents, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. by 12 percent, and former President Barack Obama by 10 percent.
Trump came in fifth on the greatest Americans list overall, but his numbers look very different depending on who’s counting. He was named the greatest American in history by 8 percent of total respondents, including 24 percent of Republicans – the highest share for any individual on the list among Republicans. By comparison, 0 percent of Democrats and 2 percent of independents said Trump was the greatest American.
Among Democrats, Martin Luther King Jr. is considered the greatest by the largest share at 24 percent, followed by Obama at 22 percent and Lincoln at 19 percent. Among Republicans, Trump tops the list at 24 percent, followed by Washington at 19 percent and Lincoln at 18 percent.
For more on how Trump’s polling numbers have shifted across his second term, see Trump’s approval rating trends.
The Dual-List Phenomenon
The only other president to appear on both the greatest and worst Americans lists was Barack Obama. Obama’s appearance on both sides of the ledger reflects a polarization that, while real, looks modest compared to Trump’s. Obama received 10 percent of the “greatest” votes and 8 percent of the “worst” votes – notable numbers, but nowhere near Trump’s dominance of the worst list.
Trump is the most admired living figure among one quarter of his own party and the most reviled American in 250 years of history among nearly two thirds of the opposing one. No historical figure – not figures associated with slavery, not mass murderers, not convicted criminals – generated that kind of lopsided consensus on the negative side.
YouGov’s own summary of the findings noted that Americans say freedom is the country’s top value, slavery is its greatest shame, and Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump are its greatest and worst people – “with substantial competition.”
The Broader Polling Picture
The worst American finding doesn’t exist in isolation. Trump’s job approval rating fell to a record low of 34 percent in a recent YouGov/The Economist poll, marking the lowest level recorded in the survey across both of his terms in office. The Economist noted Trump “this week became the most unpopular president since our poll started in 2009,” with 59 percent of respondents saying they disapprove of Trump.
A separate Yahoo/YouGov survey conducted in February 2026 found that 40 percent of Americans consider Donald Trump to be the “worst president in U.S. history,” and when combined with those who said he was “worse than average,” a majority – about 53 percent – rated Trump as one of the least successful presidents ever to hold the office.
Academic assessments have moved in the same direction. The last major tally from the Presidential Greatness Project, published in February 2024, saw 154 current and recent members of the American Political Science Association award Abraham Lincoln the top score of 93.9 out of 100. Trump finished last, with an average score of 10.92. That ranking was compiled before Trump’s second term began.
Read More: New Poll Results Are Creating Serious Problems for Trump in 2026
What This Means
A poll taken days before America’s 250th birthday produced a result that cuts straight to the heart of the country’s current divisions. The same person is the top choice for greatest American among Republicans and the top choice for worst American in history among the broader public. That gap – 24 percent calling him the best, 34 percent calling him the worst – captures a country that is not simply disagreeing about policy. It’s disagreeing about what the country’s entire history means and who gets to represent it.
Abraham Lincoln governs one end of that spectrum, consistently rated as outstanding or above average by 74 percent of Americans in separate YouGov presidential ratings polling. Trump sits at the opposite end. Across 250 years of American history, those are the two poles Americans are now being asked to evaluate – and a significant portion of the country has answered with a clear verdict.
AI Disclaimer: This article was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by a human editor.