Obama Trump rankings in the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project placed Barack Obama seventh and Donald Trump last among 45 presidents. Those results support a specific statement about that expert survey, but they do not establish how either president will ultimately be remembered.
A reader question comparing Obama as one of America’s most successful presidents with Trump as one of its worst combines historical assessment with political opinion. The evidence includes scholar rankings, documented policy decisions and current public approval, each measuring something different.
Two details require care: the final survey white paper reports 154 usable responses, and Obama left office on January 20, 2017. As of October 2026, that was less than ten years ago.
The university’s announcement reported 191 completed surveys, so this article uses the final report’s more specific usable-response figure.
What the Obama Trump rankings measured
Political scientists Brandon Rottinghaus and Justin Vaughn directed the Presidential Greatness Project. Its 2024 survey report describes online fieldwork from November 15 through December 31, 2023, with 525 scholars invited to participate.
Participants rated overall presidential greatness on a scale from zero to 100. The researchers averaged those assessments to create the ranking. Obama’s average was 73.8, while Trump’s was 10.92.
The project website lists 95 Democratic respondents, 15 Republicans and 44 independents or others. That composition provides relevant context when describing the panel’s judgments; this was not a representative survey of American voters.
The rankings also preceded Trump’s return to office in January 2025. They therefore cannot be described as a completed assessment of his second presidency.
Other expert surveys provide additional context
The Obama Trump rankings are not the only scholarly comparison. C-SPAN’s 2021 Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership placed Obama tenth and Trump 41st among 44 former presidents.
That project involved 142 historians and professional observers of the presidency. It assessed ten leadership characteristics, rather than relying only on a single overall greatness rating.
Trump ranked last in C-SPAN’s categories for moral authority and administrative skills. His highest category placements were 32nd for public persuasion and 34th for economic management. These were the participating experts’ assessments, not official government determinations.
C-SPAN also recorded Obama rising from 12th in 2017 to tenth in 2021. Differences between surveys illustrate why a particular rank needs its date, researchers and method attached.
Obama’s policy record is separate from a ranking
The National Archives’ presidential library identifies Obama as the 44th president, serving from 2009 to 2017. Its account records his signing of the Recovery Act in February 2009 to respond to the Great Recession and the Affordable Care Act in March 2010.
HealthCare.gov describes protections under the healthcare law, including coverage for pre-existing conditions, preventive care and limits on insurers canceling coverage because someone becomes sick. It also notes that some protections may not apply to grandfathered plans.
Those provisions are concrete policy features. Whether they establish Obama as one of the most successful presidents requires a broader judgment about outcomes, costs and other priorities.
The October poll measures current opinion
A Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted September 30 through October 5, 2026, found 32% approval of Trump’s job performance. The published topline reports 65% disapproval and 3% skipping the question.
The study surveyed 4,506 U.S. adults using Ipsos’ probability-based KnowledgePanel. Its methodology gives a full-sample margin of sampling error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level; uncertainty is higher for subgroups.
Reuters’ October 8 report also found that 48% of respondents who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 were very enthusiastic about voting in the midterms, compared with 30% of Trump voters.
The Ipsos methodology and results allow readers to check the population, dates and questionnaire. Hourly Times’ coverage of cost-of-living dissatisfaction provides related background.
Approval ratings describe current attitudes, while Obama Trump rankings summarize particular expert judgments. Neither establishes an unchangeable historical verdict. The next congressional election is November 3, 2026; its results will answer electoral questions rather than settle either president’s ultimate legacy.
