Trump got wish to be a 'one of a kind' president — in the worst way possible

President Donald Trump looks on as he exits Air Force One on his arrival at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Donald Trump has always wished to be an "exceptional, unique, one of a kind" president, and according to a new piece from The i Paper, he got that wish — only in the worst way possible.

Writing for the outlet on Monday, former BBC world affairs reporter Paul Wood observed that while many journalists and pundits are keen to avoid superlatives and hyperbole around the figures they cover, there can be no denying one thing anymore: "Donald Trump is the worst president the U.S. has ever had."

"And it’s true, he is: I defy you to name a worse president," Wood added.

Far from simply proclaiming this himself, Wood cited "at least three academic surveys," which put Trump dead last among the 45 men to ever hold the office of president.

"The most recent of these reports was the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey," Wood explained. "It’s more relevant than ever as Trump’s opponents, and some of his former friends, question his sanity as well as his probity. Historians and political scientists were asked to rate each president on a scale of 0 to 100. Trump scored 10.92, coming last out of 45, with the lowest score any president has ever had in this survey."

Wood also countered potential criticism of that survey being potentially skewed by "liberal bias," noting that he was "ranked at or near the bottom by experts from across the political spectrum." That was also based solely on his first term in the White House, meaning that the endless chaos and corruption of his second term have only made his standing even worse.

"Trump is both hyperactive and impulsive, decisions made and unmade as quickly as he can post on Truth Social," Wood wrote. "Politicians often wear a mask, but with Trump, what you see is what you get. That is a kind of virtue, but Trump has no filter. This made him a great reality TV star, and a terrible leader of the world’s most powerful nation."

Trump has been compared to several notable past presidents, including several famed as among the worst, but Wood noted in each case, he lacks the redeeming quality that salvaged things for those men.

"In intellect, Trump has been compared to Ronald Reagan, who was an 'amiable dunce' in the words of a political opponent, and to that famous mangler of words, George W Bush," Wood explained. "But these two Republican presidents had people skills; in Reagan’s case, you would call it charm. And the folksy, regular guy personas were — partly — an act. Bush joked that '[William F Buckley] wrote a book at Yale; I read one.' There is so much evidence that Trump is just as stupid as he looks. He does not charm."

In terms of his corruption and contempt for efforts to restrain his abuses, Trump has also been compared to Richard Nixon and Andrew Jackson, the latter of whom he has often cited as his favorite past president. While each of them "defied the courts" in their own ways, "they both believed in the rule of law itself."

"Every other president — however corrupt, venal or incompetent — respected the constitution as defining the rules of the game," Wood added. "No other president told a crowd to 'fight like hell' and then watched on television as they stormed Congress. No other president spoke publicly of refusing to accept the results of an election. No one else mused openly about how they could just keep going, becoming president for life."

He concluded: "Donald J Trump always wanted to be exceptional, unique, one of a kind. He got his wish. He is unique. He is one of a kind. He is the worst."

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