Q&A of the Day – Inauguration Day 2025 - Donald Trump’s Place in History
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio Hi Brian I can’t wait for Monday! Two things. Trump’s comeback is called the best in history. I get it but can you demonstrate that with facts? Also, Re the scholars who ranked Trump the worst pres. last year. Hahahahaha jokes on them!!!
Bottom Line: Well, the wait is over as Donald Trump is sworn in for his second administration as the 47th president of the United States today. And yes, as you mentioned, it was just last President’s Day, that 154 historians and so-called presidential ‘experts’ came together to rank Donald Trump as the worst president of the United States (while ranking Joe Biden as the 14th best president). The joke really is on them as Donald Trump officially completes the greatest comeback in American history today. So, about that...you want me to be able to illustrate that in fact Donald Trump’s ascension today is the greatest comeback in American history as opposed to relying on a potentially subjective narrative. You’ve got it.
The presidential comparisons are twofold. First, let’s dive into the total number of presidents who’ve won two presidential elections. That’s the first significant limiting factor. How many presidents do you think have won two presidential elections?
So already we see that most presidents haven’t won two presidential elections. Including Trump, only 40% of presidents have won two elections at the top of the ticket. Next up let’s view this from the perspective of a former President of the United States who left office (either by choice or due to an election loss) and attempted a comeback. How many fall into that category?
- 6: Martin Van Buren, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover & Donald Trump
And finally, how many presidents have successfully completed that political comeback by winning a subsequent presidential election?
- 2: Grover Cleveland & Donald Trump
Grover Cleveland was elected president in 1884, lost his reelection bid in 1888, however in a rematch with President Benjamin Harrison, Cleveland won once again in 1892, making him the only US president to successfully complete a comeback. So, in a fact-based way why is it that Trump’s comeback is more impressive than Cleveland’s? There are a couple of ways I could go about illustrating the point... Cleveland won 35 fewer electoral college votes than Trump, however with fewer states in the union, there were fewer electoral college votes available so that’s not the best example. The best apples to apples comparison in this context would be the popular vote.
In completing his successful presidential comeback, Grover Cleveland won 46% of the popular vote. That’s comparable to Trump’s win in 2016. In Trump’s successful comeback win last November he won 49.8% of the popular vote. Trump’s 2024 win places him as having won the most electoral college votes and the highest percentage of the popular vote of any president to have successfully completed a comeback. Now, of course, that’s just the nuts-and-bolts facts in answer to your question. The contextual side adds a whole other layer that while not quantifiable also speaks for itself.
Grover Cleveland simply lost a reelection bid for president, ran in a rematch four years later, and won. On paper Trump did the same thing, but as we’re well aware was faced with unprecedented challenges in doing so as his political adversaries took historical steps to attempt to prevent him from becoming president again. Donald Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice. Trump stands as the only former president to have ever be indicted...and his political enemies did it to him four times in two federal and two state cases. Therefore, of course, Trump stands as the only president convicted of alleged crimes (though the verdict in the New York state case will eventually be overturned). Also, only one other president, Gerald Ford – survived two assassination attempts, and Ronald Reagan is the only other president who was shot and survived.
Whether you’d like to go simply by the facts, contextualize, or both – Donald Trump’s successful comeback today is demonstrably the greatest comeback in American history. As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts...those are the facts.