History Teacher Reacts to Ben Shapiro's Worst Presidents List 

Who do YOU think are the worst 5 presidents of all time?

Ayo, Mr. T, do you remember when you told us we cant have sodas in your class, and a gentleman by the name of Courtland immediately opened a soda and it exploded? Its crazzy to see you have a youtube Chanel, and its doung well, congrats!

I feel it takes at least 20 years to really see the fallout of a presidency

One president not mentioned was Andrew Johnson. Buchanan did very little to prevent the Civil War and ends up looking bad years after, AJ actively fought against Reconstruction efforts, as Lincoln's replacement he ended up turning back on many of the ideals worked for in the Civil War and fought with Congress constantly even getting a rare impeachment. There's a difference between a president who stays focused on an issue to get what needs to be done and one that is stubborn and pushes too far in one direction. Give Carter some credit for a man not fit for presidency he handled his share of crisis' in the moment rather than foul up building a more stable state after a war.

I haven't even seen either video yet, and I'm already yelling "Wilson" - if you hate the IRS, you can thank Wilson.

To never even mention Adnrew Johnson here is baffling

Its a crime Andrew Johnson wasn't on this list.

Bottom 5 in no particular order, I’d say is Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Pierce

Benji at 1.5x is hilarious

No Andrew Johnson, no Franklin Pierce, no Warren G Harding?! It’s like this man is not even hiding the fact that he’s a yes man for big business.

I can respect Mr. Terry’s response at the start. Many people focus on the “sides” and thoughts the person had, when ignoring the actual background and history of it all. Kind of like how is said to be 2-3 years for a presidents policy’s and decisions can truly be seen, statistically and just felt. Along with how another president’s decision can affect 1-2 of their predecessors.

So strange to me that Ben seems so bipolar about wars. Pro-Iran, Iraq, Vietnam (Just thinks we should have gone harder in these), but Anti-WW1. Trashes Obama for not helping Ukraine in 2014 but also trashes Biden for helping them in 2022.

My Ten worse 10) Carter 9) Van Buren 8)Tyler 7) Harding 6) Hoover 5)Fillmore 4) Wilson 3) Pierce 2) Buchanan 1) A. Johnson

I'm not a US citizen so I can't really say a lot but the graph he shows for life expectancy drops down almost exactly when the COVID pandemic started. Struggling to blame that entirely on Obamacare.

I don’t mind recency bias within recent. I think its fair to make judgements bias/unbiased, however it’s hard to dictate whether these decisions made will have long term effects. I think it would be reasonable to add someone to the “worst presidents list” at minimum after 4 presidential terms after the time of them leaving office. There is definitely something to be said for inheriting broken houses

As a conservative, I am telling you, he isn't pro-conservative, pro-republican, or pro-libertarian... he is just pro-Israel...

I don’t believe the Crimean Referendum is highly regarded by anyone and was surprised to hear you say that. May want to dig into that one.

I love how this video encapsulates Ben's brand - fast paced facts, underlying unchecked biases, and wild inconsistencies.

The moment he starts bringing out stats about the differences between time points over 60 years apart with no mention of the in-between is the moment I give up any sense that he's trying. There's just too much history in those years.

Dude no way you expected Ben top be bipartisan and consistent. Come on all his top worst were all dems and saying bad economy was the previous president's fault when the previous presi was a dem. INCONSISTENT.

He is ignoring the roll of COVID in the reduction in life expectancy.

Great way to open your video with the emphasize on learning rather than looking for an echo chamber to hear "what we like are biased about" Subscribed :)

Blaming Carter for the Iranian revolution is so ignorant. Did Shapiro conveniently forget the various interventions of both the Western powers and the Soviet Union dating all the way back to WW2?

Putting Obama here is lunacy. It's way too soon to put him on any of these lists. Personally I'd take out Obama, LBJ, and Jimmy Carter, and put in Andrew Johnson, Warren G Harding, and Herbert Hoover, with honorable mentions to Andrew Jackson and Richard Nixon.

I haven't figured out if Shapiro is willfully ignorant, woefully uneducated, or malisiously deceptive. He might be them all.

Heavy bias by that gentleman. Facts skewed or omitted.

2 things on recovery from Great Recession under Obama. First, it was by far the worst economic downturn since Great Depression, and it almost turned into a depression. Second, long weak recoveries from recessions since the 1980s, and has been bipartisan thing. Second longest and weakest recovery was from 2001 recession under GW Bush, and by some macro measures should have been mildest postwar recession. Economists aren't sure why. Might be that recent recessions have different mix of causes than before, weakening of automatic stabilizers, such as unemployment insurance and min wage to stabilize demand.

I like how despite being on opposite sides of the political spectrum Ben Shapiro and Cypher from Cynical Historian both equally hate Wilson. “WILSON!!!”

That life expectancy chart, Ben are you even trying here.

So about the Ukraine things, that Referendum was after Russia was in Crimea and those who were anti-russia either fled or didnt feel safe voicing the truth. Also after the USSR fell, Ukraine gave up the 3rd largest nuclear arsenal in the world because US told them that if they give up the nukes we will protect you but if you dint give up the nukes we will turn you into an internstional pariah.

The graph used by Ben @9:25 has no x or y axis labeling. Just individual data points.

The Crimean referendum is highly regarded as illegitimate…

Anyone who doesnt put Buchanan in their top 5 is instantly discredited.

He has no idea what he is talking about... Ben has no idea

The invention of the cotton gin was a major reason slavery became a big issue. Cotton became so profitable to slaveowners it affected politics back then. It’s also an interesting thought what would’ve happen if the colonies decided to remain separate after the revolutionary war and kept the Articles of confederation

An unbiased Ben Shapiro is an oxymoron lmao

It did sound like he wanted the US to intervene in foreign affairs. In my opinion, which I’m not supposed to have, the US really should not be meddling in other countries’ affairs. It just makes things worse and breeds animosity.

Non-voter but lean republican, my issue with Shapiro is that his fast-talking irritates me, can't process what he is saying.

The war on poverty did largely change poverty. It took poverty from being something that potentially could lead to starvation or homelessness to a regrettable situation that rarely results in these things if someone avails themself of government assistance.

A biased Ben who would have thought.

You do realize that the Ben Shapiro video is a reaction to the American Political Science Association's ranking of all presidents that put Biden at 14 and Trump dead last, right?

19:19 to my understanding LBJ felt very strongly about civil rights because of growing up in the depression and being around a bunch of Mexicans and Black kids as his peers.

the fact he used a 2020 statistic for Obamacare is baffling, its almost like something happened in 2020 to drop the life expectancy, like a worldwide pandemic or something

Hello from Mount Vernon

Obama literally said Crimea was a "red line", and yes he told Medvedev he would have "flexibility".

I do not claim him as a Libertarian.

First President to made a bad decision, that lead us into the Vietnam war, was Truman. Truman gave into French blackmail, and let the French, back into Indochina colonies.

Mr Terry - "Do you guys see a source for anything here?" LOL🤣🤣🤣LOL From Ben Shapiro? He isn't a scholar... he is a talking head. You might as well also ask, "Did he fact check any of this?" The answer is no. Ben once said, "If you don't list a source, then people have no ground from which to argue against you."

I watch Ben regularly, and i disagree a lot with what he says, but I also agree with a lot he says. I watched this to get some more added context, and you did not disappoint.

Shapiro accuses others of being "partisan hacks", then provides next level partisan hackery.

I agree that we can’t look at any president from this this century with an unbiased lens.

The American Civil War was not inevitable, like Thanos, but would have been difficult to resolve all the issues between the north and the south without armed conflict.

1 Wilson 2 Andrew Johnson 3 James Bucanon 4 Andrew Jackson 5 is kinda a tossup of a lot of presidents for me

As somebody who listens to Ben everyday, he is NOT a liberatarian, hes a CONSERVATIVE, and he would be the first one to tell u so. He is only libertarian on some very limited social issues like pot legalization

He's explicitly supporting intervention, he's advocating for strong foreign policy through diplomacy and preventive showings of military superiority.

Ben didnt blame obama for the economy before him, he blamed him for the slow recovery

Personally, I see the Obamacare argument he made with life expectancy as "It didn't increase" as opposed to "It decreased because of it" although of course, the basis that it would have increased life expectancy could be debated, it makes much more sense as a coherent argument that way, that the way you interpreted it.

Any time I see people argue over who was worse... Bush or Obama... I just remember the photo of Young Bush and kid Obama at a BBQ together and remember they're on the same side and this is what they want.

I know the video is super old for comments at this point, but Ben's conclusions from that life expectancy chart at 11:20 are wild. Now I don't know what happened to cause a flatline from 2010-2019 or so, but it's worth pointing out that Canada has also experienced that same flatline at the same time, so potentially it's an issue caused by the recession or some other socioeconomic factors. However that drop for 2020 (and seems like the chart is to 2021/2022?) is clearly COVID-19. I know we're a couple of years removed from the pandemic's worst at this point, but it definitely hit hard enough to impact the life expectancy statistics and that was in the news at the time.

I would say saying that Trump is a reaction to Obama is fair except that I would also say that Trump as a reaction is reacting to a lot more, going back decades: an unwritten policy of ignoring what the country actually wants (not saying that Trump was good)

Ya Ben’s take on modern day figures is recency bias. But Carter should be in the bottom 10. Also no mention of Andrew Johnson

It is difficult to do a bottom five instead of say the bottom 20% because individuals score differently even with the same bias. I believe Ben's 5 would be in the bottom 20%.

My History teacher looked liked he hadn't bathed in 6 months either, however, he wasn't American, and understood his subject matter within an objective context.America proving to the world on a daily basis, that the Idiocracy was not a comedy, it was a prophecy.

Does bush still have recency bias?

imagine changing your mind on controversial topics being a sign of a bad person. it's almost like open-mindedness and conceding a losing argument is frowned upon when you're the voice of the people.

Biden is definitely going to make this list in the near future.

This is a good analysis of Shapiro’s video. I think you are right about Obama’s inclusion, it’s too recent. It is possible that he included him for controversy’s sake

ben isnt trying to convince new people of his ideology, hes here to profit off telling people what they want to believe is true also SELL THEIR HOUSES TO WHO, BEN?

Idk if he claims to be a libertarian but he's very conservative. As for Iraq. Its more of a quick pull out vs a slower pull out. Many believe the quick pull out made a vacuum that is is filled

I like how he says he won't do recent presidents, and then includes two living presidents. Like, to me, a living president hasn't quite had enough history unfold to truly show the effects of their policies. People love to complain about presidents failing their economies, but yet, almost no economic policy really truly changes the standing of the national economies specifically during their tenure.

18:50, and those exceptions are 1) pretty major exceptions and 2) even if they weren’t Buchanan doesn’t have those kinds of exceptions in Shapiro’s video so Johnson should still be ranked above Buchanan by Shapiro’s own standards

Hilarious that Shapiro said people who list Trump and Bush Jr as some of the worst are "partisan hacks" and then immediately listed Carter and Obama...

I get why Ben didn't put Bush on the list compared to Wilson or Buchanan, and i get that Ben hates Obama and understand his reason for being on this list, but suggesting Bush is far better than Obama kinda gives away the game.

Criteria was pretty much economics, racial division, and whether or not they had an influence on wars. Which was stuck to pretty good.

The first President Johnson must be on the list. Ben forgot to mention Nixon. I lived through every day of that hell.

Love when he cites data with no source 😂 how does anyone take this clown seriously

Ha, I’ve seen a couple of your videos, and every time I do, I think “this is good… and now I want to play NBA Jam…”. I did play TMNT earlier…

It seems obvious that he constructed this list so he could purposely reinforce his personal opinions about a couple of them and then add a couple that are universally seen as bad so that his list would seem less biased.

The funniest thing about this video is watching Mr T have to rewind every five seconds because Ben is talking so fast 😂. Welcome to Ben Shapiro Mr T! Also, no, Ben is not libertarian. He is very pro-foreign intervention for sure. He is classical Republican

he said even if you believe we should have been involved in vietnam, he did not exactly say that is what he believes

No Andrew Johnson or Jackson? That’s surprising.

Bottom five are probably Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, Wilson and Reagan, but I didn’t think toooo deeply about this

3:40 Every President inherits things. That’s because times flows in one direction. Ya know? You still have to judge a president on his actions. And he didn’t list the Iranian issue as the only thing for Carter, just one of the many he chose to name.

I've always viewed Buchanan as the worst president since, while some president's policies, both before and after, got us close to a civil war, including our current president, Buchanan's policies actually led to a civil war

I know for the longest time Franklin Pierce was considered to be one of the worst presidents.. His own party did not even allow him to run again. Another cool fact is that he is a ancestor of George Bush Via his mother, Barbara, whose maiden name is Pierce.

I think it’s a leap to suggest that criticism of the outcome of intervention is in itself support of intervention.

Republicans passed the civil rights act. LBJ just signed it.

Andrew Johnson should've been on this list

Ive read many books on Vietnam, watched many documentaries, and even reading a book now about F4 Phantom pilots and they all say basically the same thing. Any time the US got close to winning Vietnam washington called and said "This is a conflict, not a war. Pull back, stop attacking, don't win." It's why almost all fighting is in South Vietnam and no troops actually takes the fight to the enemy.

Your have to excuse my distant cousin BEN SHAPIRO. He often supports foreign wars.

I think a better title for his video would be “Worst Presidencies” focusing on the years and not the person.

Anybody that “hates” Shapiro needs to get a life. Go outside now and then.

30 to 50 yrs would be long enough to cast a opinion on this subject.

The one comment I will bring up regarding one of the things Ben said about Buchanan, despite how horrible and utterly detestable slavery was, I have and always will _vehemently_ disagree that secession was illegal. You know what, saying I disagree isn't even enough because that implies that the opposition at least has some merit. I _categorically deny_ that secession was illegal. First off, several of the southern states that seceded straight up enshrined in their founding documents that they made when joining the union that they had the right to leave the union at any time. Secondly, to say that secession was illegal would necessarily imply that the American Revolution itself was illegal. Thomas Jefferson clearly wrote in the Declaration of Independence that when people believed that their government no longer represented them, they had the right to abolish that government and replace it with a new one. This is exactly what the American patriots did, they believed the British Parliament no longer represented them so they threw away the British government and made their own government that they felt represented them more. Like it or not, this is also _exactly_ what the southern states were doing as well, they felt their government no longer represented them so they got rid of it and made their own. You can't say one of these events is fine and the other isn't, either they were both allowed or they were both illegal. Saying that people who no longer wish to be under you jurisdiction do not have the legal ability to leave goes _so ridiculously contrary_ to everything America is supposed to represent and is just purely tyrannical. And that point is exactly why I've always vehemently disagreed with people who say Lincoln is one of the best presidents in history... no, no he wasn't. Was ending slavery great? Yes, of course. However, Lincoln didn't start the Civil War to end slavery, he started it to do the _incredibly anti-American_ thing of _literally killing people to prevent them from carrying out their right to replace their government as laid out in the D.O.I._ and in the process of doing so drastically increased the power of the presidency which really screwed up the separation of powers, trampled all over constitutional rights and basically did every single thing that the founding fathers' pointed out Britain was doing and cited as their reason for revolting. EDIT: Really love RU-vid removing my responses so I will respond to the below comment in an edit. The US Government had plenty of proven effective non-violent option to deal with the conflict but refused to do those and resorted to bloodshed.

On that crimea vote: there was no option to stay in Ukraine, either stay independent or join Russia. Also big portion of Crimean Tatars completely boycotted it

Wow it is so easy to see the bias and agenda with mr “facts don’t care about your feelings”. Not saying his list is 100% wrong but you did point out some very valid things such as inheritance and foreign policies.

LOL Mr. Terry's facial expressions 🤣

Hello Ben is an interventionist hawk. Are you just realizing this now?

The issue with the withdrawal from Iraq was Obama campaigned on it, then bragged about it. Then when it went wrong, he said it wasn't his idea.

1 Biden 2 Biden 3 Biden 4 Obama 5 Jimmy carter