Shockingly, independent research from CNN, NPR, NBC News and Wall Street Journal reveals 3-6% of voters don’t know if they should re-elect Donald Trump or if Joe Biden would make the better president.

It’s well documented that products, people, partners and politicians are best judged by comparison.  So, let’s examine three other U.S. presidents who researchers find most resemble Trump.

Andrew Johnson

According to a New York Times article, “much more than impeachment connects the presidency of Andrew Johnson and Donald Trump.”  Only three presidents ignored the oath of office to have met the constitutional standards for impeachment.

Both the 17th and 45th president made white supremacy and racial division a component of their presidency.  Johnson opposed Reconstruction after Abraham Lincoln eliminated slavery. Trump’s defense of “beautiful” Confederate monuments, derogatory language for people of color and defending separation of families in immigration detention camps speaks volumes.

Johnson opposed the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship to all people born in America.  Likewise, Trump has gone on record to abolish the 14th Amendment.

The NY Times article concludes “Johnson and Mr. Trump are both authoritarian demagogues who threatened the world’s largest lasting experiment in democratic republicanism.”

Andrew Jackson

Alfred J. Zacher writes in History News Network “the name that most readily reflects the credentials and character of Donald Trump is Andrew Jackson.”  Both Jackson (7th president) and Trump were outsiders – not part of their party’s establishment – and were popular public figures.  Zacher claims Jackson, like Trump, was vulgar, hotheaded and had little political experience.

Trump has publicly likened himself to Andrew Jackson.  Jackson excused himself from military service because he could not march long distances and Trump avoided Vietnam citing by bone spurs.

Millard Fillmore

Jude Sheerin, BBC News-U.S. and Canada, feels Millard Fillmore (13th president) and Trump are two “peas-in-a-pod.”  Why?  Fillmore was an anti-immigrant president from New York (like Trump), who had a proclivity for conspiracy theories (like Trump) and appointed his daughter (like Trump) to a key White House position.

Where Fillmore had no appreciation for Germans and Irish Catholics, Trump has a disdain for Muslims and Central American refugees.

Paranoia reigns in both Fillmore and Trump; Fillmore thought members of the Masonic Lodge were murdering whistleblowers while Trump peddled a conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen.

Fillmore felt immigrant voters were “corrupting the ballot box” like Trump claimed millions of illegal immigrants voted in the 2016 election; both conspiracy theories went unfounded.

Does Fillmore’s statement that American jobs were being taken by “men of foreign birth to the exclusion of the native born” sound familiar?

Who might be the most knowledgeable about American politics and least biased to rank U.S. presidents?  Answer: the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Presidents and Executive Politics members, the leading professional organization for the study of political science.

How are these four presidents – out of 45 total – ranked by APSA’s scholars, where No. 1 means the best US President, No. 2 means second best … and No. 45 means the worse president?  Answer:  Andrew Jackson: No. 15; Millard Fillmore: No. 38; Andrew Johnson: No. 40 and Donald Trump: No. 45.

So, undecided voters, by knowing the above information and following the advice of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, who do you feel will best defend democracy and will be a leader who portrays good-to-great patterns of behavior – among them merciful, patient, humility, empathy, listening to diverse opinions, connecting with all manner of people, doesn’t tell lies and keep one’s word? Will it be Donald Trump or Joe Biden?

Contact Information:  Steve Corbin, 4116 Maryhill Drive, Cedar Falls, IA  50613-5781; 319-290-9779; [email protected]