Dive into the most polarizing presidencies in American history! We're exploring the commanders-in-chief who've stirred up the most controversy, challenged norms, and left an indelible mark on the nation's political landscape. From scandalous affairs to questionable policies, these presidents have truly tested the limits of presidential power.
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00:00So, just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan?
00:02I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the American presidents who,
00:11for better or worse, left their mark on history and gotten people talking in the process.
00:16For this list, we're considering the president's actions,
00:19use of executive authority, and personal conduct.
00:22Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.
00:30But I want to say one thing to the American people.
00:34I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again.
00:37I did not have sexual relations with that woman,
00:42Ms. Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time. Never.
00:48Yeah, we're starting off strong with this one.
00:50You probably already know the circumstances that led to Clinton
00:53becoming the first American president to be impeached since Andrew Johnson over 100 years earlier.
00:58These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you.
01:06But for the uninitiated, a quick recap.
01:08Clinton, who enjoyed relatively high approval ratings going into his second term,
01:12was rocked by the revelation that he'd carried out an affair with 22-year-old
01:16White House intern Monica Lewinsky from 1995 to 1997.
01:21A poll carried out at the end of Clinton's presidency revealed that 68% of the Americans
01:25surveyed believed that he would be best remembered for the Lewinsky scandal.
01:29Indeed, I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate.
01:34In fact, it was wrong.
01:36It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part,
01:41for which I am solely and completely responsible.
01:46I misled people, including even my wife.
01:50Number nine, James Buchanan.
01:52I know that it is generally in bad taste for anyone to speak of his own motives.
01:58I always tried to be wise as the serpent, but harmless as the dove.
02:03Don't blame yourself if you don't remember President Buchanan from history class.
02:07In fact, if he were around today, he'd probably prefer that.
02:10Buchanan's political decisions leading up to the Civil War,
02:13and prior to the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln,
02:16have led him to be considered as one of the worst U.S. presidents
02:19to ever hold the nation's highest office.
02:22I think he was a man carried out of his depth, out of the depth of normal politics,
02:29by the intensity of emotion that was beginning to be felt both North and South.
02:37And those emotions and the activists who held them
02:40created a polarization that pulled the rest of the country along and apart.
02:45Instead of taking decisive action on secession
02:48and the brewing tensions between the North and South,
02:50Buchanan merely waffled.
02:52Even though he disagreed with secession,
02:54the 15th president argued that the federal government's hands were tied.
02:57Ultimately, Buchanan alienated his own party through this indecision,
03:01unfortunately solidifying his legacy.
03:04His tragedy, and I think it was a tragedy,
03:07is that he found himself at the end of his term presiding over
03:11the beginnings of the dissolution of the Union, powerless to stop it.
03:16But had he been a stronger man or a luckier man,
03:19I don't think it would have made a substantial difference.
03:22Number 8. Ronald Reagan.
03:24A charge has been made that the United States has shipped weapons to Iran
03:28as ransom payment for the release of American hostages in Lebanon.
03:33That the United States undercut its allies
03:35and secretly violated American policy against trafficking with terrorists.
03:40Those charges are utterly false.
03:42President Reagan's tenure in the White House was marred by scandal
03:45and stark polarization over his policymaking,
03:47as well as his administration's conduct, which reflected negatively on him.
03:51Chief among these was his handling of the Iran-Contra affair,
03:55which revealed that the United States had illegally sold weapons to arms-embargoed Iran.
04:00Other reports have surfaced alleging U.S. involvement.
04:03Reports of a sea lift to Iran using Danish ships to carry American arms.
04:08Of vessels in Spanish ports being employed in secret U.S. armed shipments.
04:13Of Italian ports being used.
04:15Of the U.S. spending or sending spare parts and weapons for combat aircraft.
04:20Although Reagan claimed to be unaware of the scandal's true depth,
04:24critics accused him of either lying or being so incompetent that he was out of the loop
04:28with regard to his own administration's activities.
04:31This was in addition to Reaganomics,
04:33economic policies which disproportionately benefited the wealthy,
04:36and his draconian war on drugs, which saw non-violent offenders locked up.
04:41The perception is growing that the crime problem stems from the emergence of a
04:45a new privileged class in America.
04:49A class of repeat offenders and career criminals
04:52who think they have a right to victimize their fellow citizens with virtual impunity.
04:56They're openly contemptuous of our way of justice.
05:00In America, in his time, 20% of all the population was enslaved.
05:08And Jefferson was one of those slaveholders.
05:11So coming to Monticello is an opportunity for people to think about this complexity.
05:18The United States' third president has consistently been ranked by scholars and historians
05:22as the most influential figure in American history.
05:26as one of the nation's greatest.
05:33However, that generous assessment sits at odds with
05:36Jefferson's well-documented support of slavery.
05:39Jefferson is reported to have owned, at one point or another,
05:42over 600 slaves, freeing only two of them during his lifetime.
05:46I think he was a great founding father,
05:50but I also know that he enslaved many of my ancestors.
05:54So it's just learning about a time of history and acknowledging it for what it was
06:01and not trying to paint it one way or the other.
06:04While Jefferson did indeed harbor racist beliefs that were commonplace at the time,
06:08his pro-slavery views were privately motivated by his considerable personal debt.
06:13The remainder of his slaves were sold off after his death to cover what he owed.
06:17Historian James Lowen summed it up by noting that Jefferson, quote,
06:20wrestled with slavery even though, in the end, he lost.
06:23In order to see Jefferson clearly, you have to see him through the lens
06:28and through the eyes of his enslaved population.
06:31And even if only what we know about them is their name, it is significant.
06:41I believe in party government as distinguished from personal government.
06:47Individual, dictatorial, autocratic, or whatnot.
06:53It was the intent of the founding fathers
06:56to give this republic a dependable and enduring popular government.
07:00Unlike several other presidents on our list today,
07:03Harding was hardly controversial during his lifetime.
07:06Quite the contrary.
07:06Harding was actually quite popular with the American public,
07:09owing to his campaign pledge to return daily life to the, quote,
07:13normalcy of pre-World War I times.
07:15As such, his sudden death in August of 1923 shocked the nation,
07:19and he was widely mourned.
07:21That is, until a number of posthumous scandals were unearthed,
07:24tarnishing his legacy.
07:26Harding's reputation was simply attacked in a way that,
07:29so I would argue no other president of the United States has suffered those attacks.
07:34I think they were in part because of the coming election of 1924.
07:39These included the Teapot Dome scandal,
07:41in which Interior Secretary Albert Bacon Fall
07:44was convicted of accepting bribes from oil companies for drilling rights.
07:47This was in addition to his numerous extramarital affairs,
07:50which resulted in the president fathering a child.
07:53Well, it's an interesting dichotomy.
07:57We like Mr. Harding because he did a great job
07:59with starting a newspaper in our community.
08:01He provided a lot of jobs.
08:02He also was a great civic leader
08:04and really encouraged new business here in Marion
08:07during its industrial development.
08:09But we also are very well aware of many of the things
08:12that others have written and said about Mr. Harding,
08:16some true, some not true.
08:29FDR's particular brand of controversy has surprisingly little to do
08:33with the fact that he remains the longest-serving president in history,
08:36serving four terms over 12 years until his death.
08:40Taking office in 1933,
08:41FDR was faced with tackling the Great Depression,
08:44which his predecessor, Herbert Hoover, had failed to contain.
09:06As it has endured.
09:08In response, Roosevelt implemented the iterative New Deal,
09:11which aimed to provide economic relief
09:13and stimulate job creation, among other goals.
09:16New Deal programs helped the country get back on its feet,
09:19but critics asserted that those same programs
09:21constituted a form of government overreach
09:24and accused Roosevelt of attempting to sow communism on U.S. soil.
09:28When Roosevelt did take the Oval Office,
09:31the banks in most states were closed,
09:34and in others there was a limitation on how much you could withdraw.
09:40And this is as close to paralysis in a capitalist system as we can get.
09:50I guarantee you those who knew Lincoln best
09:53never called him Honest Abe or Old Abe.
09:56So Lincoln was a very shrewd manufacturer of his public image.
10:04when you hear that Lincoln was, in his lifetime,
10:07a highly polarizing figure who was detested by many.
10:10In fact, prior to his April 1865 assassination
10:13at the hands of John Wilkes Booth,
10:15some of his political enemies were already plotting his demise.
10:18Lincoln earned his controversial status
10:20by openly advocating for the end of slavery,
10:23despite initially promising the southern states
10:25that he wouldn't involve himself in their affairs.
10:27He persuaded people that there was a secondary cause to the war,
10:31that union meant liberty,
10:32that liberty would preserve the union.
10:34It was intertwined.
10:36Every man has a right to be equal with every other man.
10:40In this great struggle, this form of government
10:43and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed.
10:48The Emancipation Proclamation was Lincoln's crowning achievement.
10:51On January 1st, 1863, the Executive Order was signed into law,
10:55freeing over three million enslaved African Americans,
10:59among other Confederate grievances.
11:01This led Booth to take the president's life.
11:03I don't think southerners ever really anticipated a loss.
11:07And so when the South did lose,
11:10there were people who were inconsolable.
11:12And of course, Lincoln was at the center of that.
11:16He believed that he had one last chance to save the South,
11:20and that was to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
11:23Number three, George W. Bush.
11:25Bush versus Gore was a watershed moment
11:28where the curtain was lifted on our election system in the United States,
11:32and we realized we've got to do something to fix it.
11:35And in some ways, Congress did,
11:36but then there were the unintended or possibly intended consequences.
11:41Even the start of Bush the Younger's presidency was riddled with controversy.
11:45After a contentious election that saw the courts deciding the election in Bush's favor,
11:49the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York City changed everything.
11:53The Iraq War began as a direct response to the attacks,
11:56based on intel that suggested Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
11:59harbored weapons of mass destruction.
12:01Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure.
12:07The people of the United States and our friends and allies
12:10will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime
12:13that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.
12:16No such weapons were ever found,
12:18and Bush's administration was harshly criticized
12:21for the ensuing Iraqi and American casualties.
12:23As if that wasn't enough,
12:25Bush came under fire for approving quote,
12:27enhanced interrogation techniques,
12:29that is, torture, to be used on people suspected of terrorism,
12:32as well as his mishandling of the fallout of Hurricane Katrina.
12:36The memory of traveling down to New Orleans
12:40is one of the most searing memories I have as secretary.
12:45I was surprised to find so many families
12:49still struggling to get back in their homes.
12:51Number two, Richard Nixon.
12:53I want to say this to the television audience.
12:55I've made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life,
13:00I have never profited, never profited from public service.
13:04I've earned every cent.
13:06Does any president have as complex and tangled a legacy as President Nixon?
13:10For years, Nixon struggled to maintain a foothold in politics,
13:14even throwing in the towel altogether
13:16after losing the 1960 presidential election
13:18and 1962 California gubernatorial election.
13:22When he finally ascended to the presidency in 1969,
13:25the 37th commander-in-chief made a number of significant accomplishments.
13:29These included pulling American soldiers out of the Vietnam War,
13:32establishing diplomatic relations with China,
13:35and enacting several progressive environmental policies.
13:38I have never obstructed justice.
13:41And I think too that I can say that in my years of public life,
13:46that I welcome this kind of examination
13:48because people have got to know whether or not their president's a crook.
13:52Well, I'm not a crook.
13:53I've earned everything I've got.
13:55And enacting several progressive environmental policies.
13:59Nixon's popularity and string of achievements came to a screeching halt
14:02once his involvement with the now-infamous Watergate scandal was exposed.
14:06When it was proven that Nixon had conspired
14:08to illegally surveil his political opponents,
14:10he became the only president to resign from his post.
14:13I have never been a quitter.
14:17To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body.
14:24But as president, I must put the interests of America first.
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15:03Whether you love him or hate him,
15:05it's inarguable that President Trump is a politician unlike any other.
15:09How do we even begin to list the ways that the 45th and 47th president is controversial?
15:14Well, let's list some of his firsts.
15:16Trump is the only president in history to have served
15:19without previous military or government experience,
15:22and also the only president to have been impeached twice.
15:25You're declaring open war on American democracy.
15:29You are the ones interfering in America's elections.
15:33You are the ones subverting America's democracy.
15:36We did nothing wrong, nothing whatsoever.
15:40This was just an excuse.
15:42Trump's actions in office have garnered significant widespread controversy,
15:46like his 2017 travel ban that targeted Muslim countries,
15:49and his unprecedented 2025 efforts to deport literally millions of undocumented immigrants.
15:55We could go on, but it's worth noting that his May 2024 conviction
15:59for falsifying business records makes him the only president to face such a criminal charge.
16:04I'm totally innocent. I did nothing wrong.
16:07They talked about business records, and the business records were extremely accurately counted.
16:12I had nothing to do with them.
16:14That was done by an accountant or a bookkeeper who,
16:17I think, gave very credible testimony and was corroborated by everybody that was asked.
16:23Which president's actions shocked you the most?
16:25Are there any we missed?
16:27Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
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