Trump Derangement Syndrome for the 19th Century (yes, really)

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2 MIN READ - The Cautious Optimism Correspondent for Left Coast Affairs and Other Inexplicable Phenomena is hoping to be nominated for a medical Nobel Prize (never mind, no conservatives or libertarians allowed) for discovering Trump Derangement Syndrome is a retroactive mental condition that reaches back two centuries for new victims to cancel.

As most of CO Nation knows, a selective group of prestigious scholars in history and political science participates in regular “Presidential Scholar Surveys” to collectively rank America’s 45 presidents from best to worst.

Readers probably also know, or at least suspect, that these academics can and often have a liberal slant that influences their subjective scoring.

But the Left Coast Correspondent has discovered evidence that these so-called scholars can suddenly and drastically change their rankings centuries back due to Trump Derangement Syndrome.

The case in point exhibit is Andrew Jackson’s recent treatment by presidential historians.

Going back to the first survey in 1948 Jackson has traditionally ranked highly, always in the top or second quartile of all presidents for 66 years. 

That is, until Donald Trump publicly announced that the populist and anti-corruption Jackson is his favorite president in 2016.

Looking at the attached chart and summarizing all the major polls going back to 1962 we can see Jackson averaged around 9th place all the way up until 2015 where he also placed 9th.

But as soon as Trump announced his admiration for Jackson Old Hickory instantly fell to 16th place and bottomed out at 23rd in the 2022 poll, losing 14 spots.

The Correspondent checked revisions for every other president from 2015 to 2022 and none comes anywhere close to such a dramatic change, up or down.

The next most volatile change is a three way-tie among seven point movers, half that of Jackson’s. 

In what will probably surprise no one, Ronald Reagan fell seven points from 11th place to 18th while Barack Obama rose seven points from 18th to 11th, effectively trading places with and leapfrogging the Gipper.

And Ulysses Grant improved seven points from 28th to 21st.

Again, Jackson’s decline was double the move of the three runner-ups.

The Correspondent thinks he knows what happened here although he hasn’t put every participating historian under the lie detector. Once Trump declared Andrew Jackson was his man Trump Derangement Syndrome took hold and most historians decided to punish Jackson as a surrogate for Trump.

Furthermore, each individual historian likely thought “I’ll sneak in my own epic demotion of Trump’s favorite president, but since I’m only one of roughly 150 other scholars the ludicrous magnitude of my freefall downgrade won’t be noticed."

What each historian probably didn’t anticipate was how the far-reaching and delusional effects of TDS would craze all academics in the same manner, not just themselves as individuals, and that unbeknownst to each the more visible ranking constructed from all their tantrums combined would plummet just as far.

Andrew Jackson may have been elected 197 years ago and died in 1845, but even he doesn’t escape the pettiness, rage, and (shall I say hatred and intolerance?) of 21st century Trump-deranged presidential historians.

p.s. In the latest 2024 poll Joe Biden has been declared 14th best president, two spots higher than Ronald Reagan.

Unsurprisingly, Barack Obama has been elevated even higher into the pantheon of greats at 7th, better than John Adams, James Madison, Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, and even their beloved Bill Clinton. According to them Obama is the greatest American president since World War II.

Donald Trump ranks dead last among all presidents at number 45.